From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-09-08T16:09:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Receiving array naturally?

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 7:10 AM, Terry Michaels <spare@frigidcode.com> wrote:
> As I learn Ruby, I find a lot of flexibility in the syntax. I was
> thinking there was a way to do something like so: Say I had a method
> that would receive an array. Is it possible to define the method so that
> it can take the array elements /either/ as an Array object, /or/ as a
> comma-separated (variable) list of elements (without the brackets)?
>
> Like,
>
>  process_data(string1, string2, string3, ...)
>
> would be the same as
>
>  string_array = [string1, string2, string3, ...]
>  process_data(string_array)
>
> I thought something like so would work:
>
>  def process_data(*strings)
>     ...
>  end
>
> That works with the comma-separated list, because the list gets combined
> into one array ("strings"), but if I pass in an array object, that array
> object is not split up, but rather becomes one (Array object) element of
> the "strings" array.
>
> Do I need to write code that checks whether each object passed in is an
> array or not, manually splitting if necessary (which perhaps is
> complicated) or is there something else I'm overlooking? Or perhaps is
> my whole idea dumb from the start...?

I wouldn't judge on this one although I generally believe that
reduction of alternatives increases clarity.

You could do

def simple(*a)
  a.flatten.each do |x|
    x.whatever
  end
end

def complex(*a)
  if a.length == 1 && Enumerable === a.first
    a.first
  else
    a
  end.each do |x|
    x.whatever
  end
end

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/