From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-03-30T16:19:42+09:00
Subject: Re: Fastest Array Search?

2010/3/30 Derek Cannon <novellterminator@gmail.com>:
> Hello, everyone! What would be the quickest/best way to check elements
> of an array, which themselves are arrays of hashes? Quick example:
>
> mov1 = {"title"=>"Batman Returns", "genre"=>"Action"}
> mov2 = {"title"=>"Batman", "genre"=>"Action"}
> mov3 = {"title"=>"Batman Begins", "genre"=>"Action"}
> mov4 = {"title"=>"The Dark Knight", "genre"=>"Action"}
> array = mov1, mov2, mov3, mov4
>
> Right now, to search for "Batman Beings", for instance, I'm using:
>
> puts array.each { |i|
>  if i["title"] == "Batman Begins"
>    puts "Found!"
>    break # ends the searching because item is found
>  end
>  }
>
> Is there a better or faster way to do this in Ruby? I'm going to be
> looking through much more data then this, so I want the most efficient
> code possible. I'm just a beginner, so this is pretty much all I know
> how to do in Ruby.

I'd use #find:

array.find {|i| i["title"] == "Batman Begins"}

If you need to sift through large volumes of data it is reasonable to
create an index using one or more Hash instances.

Kind regards

robert


-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
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