From: Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@...>
Date: 2000-10-17T02:45:13+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:5600] passing single or multiple strings.

With multple assignments I can get nested arrays "shelled" (like peas)  
until there is one outermost container:

irb(main):008:0> *x = [1, 2], 3
[[1, 2], 3]
irb(main):009:0> x
[[1, 2], 3]
irb(main):010:0> *y = [1,2]
[1, 2]
irb(main):011:0> y
[1, 2]

So I can do 

    def something(args)
        *bunch_of_args = args
        bunch_of_args.each do
            ...
        end
    end

That's fine, and quite useful; if args are Strings and I just get one
string then I don't get caught out by wanting to write:

    case args.type
    when Array
       ...
    when String
       ...
    end

which does not work.  (You have to use if args.type == Array...elsif....
for that.)

But this is quite different:

    def something(*bunch_of_args)
        bunch_of_args.each do
            ...
        end
    end

because then things are not "shelled" out and if I pass in an Array I get
a nested Array.  something(["x", "y"]) => bunch_of_args == [["x", "y"]]

So what method of Array, if any, will do this "shelling" for me?

It is not flatten, that is quite different.
 
	Hugh
	hgs@dmu.ac.uk