From: "Chr. Rippel" <chr_news@...>
Date: 2002-02-07T20:03:34+09:00
Subject: Re: shuffle (all possible sequences)

"Tobias Reif" <tobiasreif@pinkjuice.com> wrote, 
....
> > "abc".consists_of?("abc") # -> true
> > "acb".consists_of?("abc") # -> true
> > "bac".consists_of?("abc") # -> true
> > "bca".consists_of?("abc") # -> true
> > 
> > And then, how can I say
> > 
> > word_list = ['foo', 'bca']
> > word_list.include? word_consisting_of('abc')
> > # => true
> 
> 
> This seems to do the trick:

Well it depends if you want to permit repetitions - i.e. what would
be the outcome of 

"abbbc".consists_of? "abc"  # should be false, right?

in which case something like  

class String
  def consists_of? (other)
    return false unless length == other.length
    tmp = other
    rep = ''
    each_byte do |i|
      return false unless tmp.sub!(i.chr,rep)
    end
    return true
  end
end

would do the trick - the second question is harder (at least
if you want to do it efficiently)

/Christoph