From: "Kurt M. Dresner" <kdresner@...>
Date: 2003-08-27T02:00:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Array#uniq!

The exclamation point usually means that the array is modified in place,
and thus its return value should not be the uniquified array, but rather
something that can tell you if the array elements were unique, and if
not, what elements were responsible.

That way, you can say something like:

a = some stuff

if b = a.uniq!
   puts "array was unique."
else
   puts "array was not unique: multiple instances of " + b.join(', ')
end

That is a whole lot better than having to store a copy of the old array
and then do set subtraction with the uniquified array.

-Kurt

On Wed, Aug 27, 2003 at 01:48:14AM +0900, mgarriss wrote:
> Anyone know why Array#uniq returns an array in every case and 
> Array#uniq! returns nil if nothing is removed?  I'd prefer it to return 
> the array in every case but I'm sure my attempt to reduce one line of 
> code (no flames on this plz, it's just fun) are superseded by some 
> really important concept I don't know about.  :)
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
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