From: Chris Pine <nemo@...>
Date: 2003-02-06T06:34:45+09:00
Subject: a cute way to reduce a fraction?

Hello,

I'm trying to find a pretty way to reduce a fraction.  Assuming I have two
arrays, `num' and `den', containing the prime factors of the numerator and
the denomenator, I'd like some nice way to remove identical numbers and thus
reduce the fraction.  So it would look like this:

  num = [2, 2, 3]  # 12
  den = [2, 3]     #  6

  #  ...your pretty ruby here...

  num  # --> [2]
  den  # --> []

I tried some stuff with each_with_index and deleting from the arrays when I
find a match, but deleting elements from an array you are each'ing is not
pretty.  Every solution I come up with seems to have too much going on.
There's got to be a pretty Ruby way to do this, right?

Chris