From: Wayne Brissette <wbrisett@...>
Date: 2011-12-03T20:06:13+09:00
Subject: Is there a better way to check this array?

I have an array which contains items that need to be renamed. Unfortunately the way things are changed are based on a comparison of if something else exists. For example in this simple array: 

 names = ['sue,5', 'tom,6', 'jim,7', 'sally,8', 'fred,9', 'barney,0']


if my logic was if look at jim, see if fred exists in array, if so, change jim to Jim_Brown. 

As I see it now I can't do a simple include? because my array isn't split properly. I've tried doing a grep, but that also doesn't work. 

ruby-1.9.2-p290 :020 > names = ['sue,5', 'tom,6', 'jim,7', 'sally,8', 'fred,9', 'barney,0']
 => ["sue,5", "tom,6", "jim,7", "sally,8", "fred,9", "barney,0"] 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :021 > names.include?('fred')
 => false 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :022 > names.grep('fred')
 => [] 

One solution I see is to split the array into  a temporary second array and check that split array


ruby-1.9.2-p290 :023 > names.each do | ind |
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :024 >      ind_name = ind.split(",")
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :025?>   tmparray.push(ind_name[0])
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :026?>   end
 => ["sue,5", "tom,6", "jim,7", "sally,8", "fred,9", "barney,0"] 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :027 > puts tmparray
sue
tom
jim
sally
fred
barney
 => nil 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :028 > tmparray.include?('fred')
 => true 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :029 > tmparray.grep('fred')
 => ["fred"] 


But there must be a better way that I'm simply overlooking, yes? 

Wayne