From: Paul Smith <paul@...>
Date: 2009-10-31T17:47:54+09:00
Subject: Re: mtime.max

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 1:38 AM, Derek Smith
<derekbellnersmith@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> My goal is to get the oldest file using mtime.to_i then delete it.
> However my
> puts stats.to_a.max does not seem to print out the oldest mtime
> data/file, rather its printing out the 2nd to oldest file;
> prod_db_bkup_Tue2009-10-271455.gz
>
> Correct me please and show me the code.
>
> thx!
>
> <snip>
> d=Date.today
> t=Time.now
> require 'enumerator'
>    stats = Hash.new
>    DB_BKUP1.each do |dbfile|
>        stats[dbfile] = [File.stat(dbfile).mtime.to_i]
>    end
>    puts stats.to_a,"\n\n"
>    puts stats.to_a.max

This line is sorting the hash by the key, i.e. the filename.  You'll
see that Tue is alphabetically after Thu and Fr, and 271642 is after
271455.

instead, try

puts stats.sort {|x,y| x[1] <=> y[1]}.max

This explicitly sorts by the 2nd value in the to_a array, which is the mtime.

-- 
Paul Smith
http://www.nomadicfun.co.uk

paul@pollyandpaul.co.uk