From: Aldric Giacomoni <aldric@...>
Date: 2009-12-11T00:01:46+09:00
Subject: Re: human-readable listing of array elements

Robert Klemme wrote:
> By using String#<< your code will become more efficient because you do
> not create new String objects all the time.
Thanks :)
> 
> For the fun of it here are two other solutions:
> 
> irb(main):026:0> def stringify array
> irb(main):027:1>   lead = array.slice 0...-1
> irb(main):028:1>   lead.empty? ? array.last.to_s : [lead.join(", "),
> array.last].join(" and ")
> irb(main):029:1> end
> 
> irb(main):039:0> def stringify array
> irb(main):040:1>   tail = array.slice -2..-1
> irb(main):041:1>   tail ? (array.slice(0...-2) << tail.join(" and
> ")).join(", ") : array.first.to_s
> irb(main):042:1> end
>
> Note, I don't claim that this is necessarily more rubyish. :-)

Your solutions *stink* of LISP, but maybe that's only because you're .. 
er.. processing lists.
I like your first one - it feels more elegant than mine. The second one 
feels a little too convoluted. I also find that using 'slice' is too 
wordy, and usually just settle for array[0...-1] or array[-2..-1] -- but 
clearly that's just preference. Thanks for the further examples, I'll 
remember them (and possibly even use them someday!)
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