From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2003-11-20T23:45:36+09:00
Subject: Re: learning the "Ruby way"

On Thursday, November 20, 2003, 8:07:14 PM, Mark wrote:

> [...]

> Problem:
> I have a sorted list ('alfred', 'boris', 'bruce', 'claire', 'dean', 'donald')
> and would like to generate or return ('-a-', 'alfred', '-b-', 'boris',
> 'bruce', '-c-', 'claire', '-d-', 'dean', 'donald').

> Here's my solution:
> [...]

> Is this the "Ruby way" of solving this problem? I doubt it, defining
> "helper variables" like this is what had to be done in Basic, and my
> solution doesn't demonstrate the high degree of readability Ruby is often
> praised for.

> Any useful suggestions for me? I'd be very grateful!
> Mark


My first thought was to collect the values into a hash

  { 'a' => ['alfred'],
    'd' => ['dean', 'donald'],
    ... }

then render that hash into the array that you want.

It's unlikely to be all that efficient, but both steps are very easy.

Cheers,
Gavin