Comparing Arrays

[paintba||er]

I'm a Ruby n00b trying to write a simple app, and I've been trying to find a way to do this for a while, but can't seem to find anything. Here is essentially what I want to do:


if array contains 1,2,3 or 4,5,6 then

execute this code

But the array may have many more numbers in it than that, and they won't be in the same order. All I've been able to find are things where the two arrays have to be exactly alike.

[ReggieB]

How about this for a starter:

elements_not_found = [1, 2, 3].delete_if {|x| array_to_test.include?(x)}
if  elements_not_found.length  == 0
  code_to_execute
else
  puts "The elements not found were: #{elements_not_found.join(', ')}"
end

[AllTom]

You can write it intuitively when you are familiar with some of the more obscure methods of the Enumerable module (my favorite module!). See the documentation for Enumerable, especially the methods #any? and #all?.

To test whether your array includes all of a set of numbers:

[1, 2, 3].all? { |num| ary.include? num }

You want to test against two arrays, so you'd probably pull it out as a function. The function might take the array to test, and arrays of approved sets. The function will test if the given array includes all of any set of numbers:

def approve?(ary, *approved_sets)
  approved_sets.any? do |approved_set|
    approved_set.all? { |num| ary.include? num }
  end
end
 
approve? some_ary, [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]

You would name this function something more appropriate to your specific use case because it is not very general. I cannot tell what you would use it for, so I chose a fairly poor function name.

[Fenrir2]

def approve?(ary, *arys)
  arys.any?{|x| ary & x == x}
end

[ReggieB]

I thought there'd be a better way to do it Using Enumerable methods is a much better solution than my delete_if one.

[AllTom]

def approve?(ary, *arys)
  arys.any?{|x| ary & x == x}
end

I kind of like this one, too. It'd be a bit unnatural for me, and took me a moment to "get," but it's short and sweet.

[Fenrir2]

It's easier if you look at it visually.



The big bubble is ary and the small one is x. The overlapping area is "ary & x": the elements that are in ary and in x. So if x is contained inside ary, then the overlapping area is equal to x (as you can see in the second picture).

We can write a contains? function like this:

def contains?(ary, x)
  overlapping_area = ary & x
  return overlapping_area == x
end

I hope this makes sense. Now you should be able to understand this if you look at the pictures:

def contains?(ary, x)
  areas_combined = ary | x
  return areas_combined == ary
end

[ReggieB]

Splendid explanation Fenrir2. It makes it clearer to me how your solution works. Very neat.