From: "F. Senault" <fred@...>
Date: 2010-09-21T02:10:09+09:00
Subject: An elegant way...

Hello everybody.

I've written a method to solve a little problem, but I find my solution
really ugly.  So, I'm trying to find ways to improve it.

The method takes one argument, an array containing a sorted list of
strings representing episodes numbers.  The episodes numbers are either
a number ('1', '12') or prefixed with a letter ('S1' for special 1).  My
goal is to find sequences in the numbers and join them with dashes :

>> RAniDBTools.format_episodes_list([ '1', '2', '3', '4', '6', '7', '9', 'S1', 'S2' ])
=> "1-4, 6-7, 9, S1-S2"
>> RAniDBTools.format_episodes_list([ '1', '2', 'S3', 'S4', 'S5', 'O6' ])
=> "1-2, S3-S5, O6"

Here's the code ; what can I do to improve this ?

module RAniDBTools
  def RAniDBTools.format_episodes_list(list)
    lt = []
    le = []
    list.each do |epno|
      if ('0'..'9').include? epno[0,1]
        t = ''
        e = epno.to_i
      else
        t = epno[0..0]
        e = epno[1..-1].to_i
      end
      if lt.last == t
        max = le.last.max rescue le.last
        min = le.last.min rescue le.last
        if e == max + 1
          le[-1] = (min..e)
        else
          le << e
          lt << t
        end
      else
        le << e
        lt << t
      end
    end
    f = []
    le.each_with_index do |e, i|
      if e.is_a? Range
        f << "#{lt[i]}#{e.min}-#{lt[i]}#{e.max}"
      else
        f << "#{lt[i]}#{e}"
      end
    end
    f.join(', ')
  end
end

TIA, 

Fred
-- 
This is the right time, once in a lifetime   So I find it hard to sleep,
don't you know   The sun is shining in my window, life's in flow  Making
music in the morning, laughter's light  Creativity touches in for flight
                                             (The Corrs, The Right Time)