From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2008-11-11T16:22:37+09:00
Subject: Re: Comparing variable to multiple values

On 11.11.2008 01:56, Brian Adkins wrote:
> Greg Lazarev <russianbandit@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> I'm wondering if there's a better way to do this in ruby:
>>
>> if a == "word1" || a == "word2" or || a == "word3"
>>   puts "good"
>> end
> 
> I realize that you probably want a more general solution (which others
> have already provided); however, if 'a' *does* follow a pattern:
> 
> puts 'good' if a =~ /word[1-3]/
> 
> or
> 
> puts 'good' if a =~ /word\d+/

You forgot the anchors.  Your regexp will also match "fooword1bar" which 
was not intended by OP.  Also, IIRC it is more efficient to switch 
sides, i.e.

puts 'good' if /\Aword[1-3]\z/ =~ a

For _large_ sets of words which do not follow a simple pattern a Set may 
be more efficient

TEST = %w{word1 word2 word3 plus many more words}.to_set.freeze

puts 'good' if TEST.include? a

Kind regards

	robert