Re: Using a loop to run similar commands

On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 10:14 AM, dwight schrute <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hi again,
>
> Is there a neater way to do this, by using a loop?
>
> create1 = agent.get(t1)
> create2 = agent.get(t2)
> create3 = agent.get(t3)
> create4 = agent.get(t4)
> create5 = agent.get(t5)
> create6 = agent.get(t6)
> create7 = agent.get(t7)
> create8 = agent.get(t8)
> create9 = agent.get(t9)
> create10  = agent.get(t10)
> create11  = agent.get(t11)
> create12  = agent.get(t12)
>
> Thanks guys,
>
> Dwight
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>
Yes, but it's flagrantly wrong. You're creating consecutive variable names,
thus using the current binding as if it were a hash or an array (depending
on how literally you want to interpret it). What you should be doing is
using an actual hash or array. Here is an example:



# agent will be a hash that represents
# whatever your agent is in your use case
agent = {
  't0' => 'value for t0',
  't1' => 'value for t1',
  't2' => 'value for t2',
  't3' => 'value for t3',
}

# give it a get method so it looks like your agent
class <<agent
  alias_method :get, :fetch
end


# instead of local variables t1, t2, ..., tn
# use an array named t, and put the values in there
# at the appropriate indexes
t = ['t0', 't1', 't2', 't3']

# instead of local variables create1, create2, ..., createn
# use an array named create, and put the values in there
create = []

# for each of the values of t, get them from agent
# and put them into create
t.each do |t_i|
  create << agent.get(t_i)
end

# and now the create hash holds all the values that
# the local variables would have had to hold
create # => ["value for t0", "value for t1", "value for t2", "value for t3"]