Welcome to a fun evening of deceit and murder at Hill House.
#pop
Like a revolver in a dining room, this pops off the last item in the array and shows you the body.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.pop => "Mr. Boddy" victims => ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho"]
Give it a number and it will do a multi-hit job and take out the last n elements. If there’s fewer than the number you gave, then you can rest in your dissatisfaction without getting a nil back.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho"] victims.pop(3) => ["Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho"] victims => ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl"] victims.pop(4) => ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl"] victims => []
To remove an element from the beginning instead of the end, put down the revolver and locate a shiv, we’re getting shifty. Same argument rules apply for removing n elements.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.shift => "Yvette" victims => ["Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.shift(3) => ["Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist"] victims => ["Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.shift(5) => ["Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims => []
#delete_at
If you care more about murdering anyone in the Conservatory than targeting any one person, then use #delete_at to specify the place at which you would like to remove an element.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.delete_at(3) => "Stranded Motorist" victims => ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"]
Of course, if there isn’t a Conservatory to begin with, then you’re going to get yelled at.
victims.delete_at(7) => nil
#delete
Then again, if someone is out to blackmail you, it’s probably best to simply target that one person. Forget the revolver or the knife, consider #delete a targeted missile that could blow up on you if you enter in something that isn’t there.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"]
victims.delete("Yvette")
=> "Yvette"
victims.delete("Wadsworth")
=> nil
Of course, we set up a message to be sent in place of getting nil.
victims = ["Yvette", "Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"]
victims.delete("Wadsworth") { "Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn"}
=> "Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn"
#compact
If you’ve found that your French maid, Yvette, has been murdered, you can use #compact to help clean all the nil out of your array. Your spotless array will be returned to you, even if there weren’t any nil items to begin with.
victims = [nil, "Telegram Girl", nil, "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.compact => ["Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"]
Use the destructive version and you will, however, get a nil if there weren’t any spots to clean.
victims = ["Telegram Girl", "Officer", "Stranded Motorist", "Mrs. Ho", "Mr. Boddy"] victims.compact! => nil
#uniq
Let’s clarify the victim types and view the array without any duplicates (or modifying it) thanks to some help from #uniq.
victim_types = ["staff", "visitor", "visitor", "visitor", "staff", "host"] victim_types.uniq => ["staff", "visitor", "host"] victim_types => ["staff", "visitor", "visitor", "visitor", "staff", "host"]
By using the destructive version, we can permanently alter the array.
victim_types = ["staff", "visitor", "visitor", "visitor", "staff", "host"] victim_types.uniq! => ["staff", "visitor", "host"] victim_types => ["staff", "visitor", "host"]
We can make things even crazier by passing a block to specify what we want to compare. For example, let’s make an array of arrays where we have both the victim as well as their type…
victims_and_types = [["Yvette", "staff"], ["Telegram Girl", "visitor"], ["Officer", "visitor"], ["Stranded Motorist", "visitor"], ["Mrs. Ho", "staff"], ["Mr. Boddy", "host"]]
If we compare whatever returns by calling #first on the inner arrays, we will compare the victim’s name/title. They’re all unique, so everyone is returned.
victims_and_types.uniq {|victim_detail| victim_detail.first}
=> [["Yvette", "staff"], ["Telegram Girl", "visitor"], ["Officer", "visitor"], ["Stranded Motorist", "visitor"], ["Mrs. Ho", "staff"], ["Mr. Boddy", "host"]]
If we compare using the second item (index 1), now we are using the type. The first occurrence of each type is returned.
victims_and_types.uniq {|victim_detail| victim_detail[1]}
=> [["Yvette", "staff"], ["Telegram Girl", "visitor"], ["Mr. Boddy", "host"]]
Again, we can permanently alter the array by adding a bang (!), but we will get a nil if there aren’t any duplicates.
victims_and_types.uniq! {|victim_detail| victim_detail[1]}
=> [["Yvette", "staff"], ["Telegram Girl", "visitor"], ["Mr. Boddy", "host"]]
victims_and_types
=> [["Yvette", "staff"], ["Telegram Girl", "visitor"], ["Mr. Boddy", "host"]]
victims_and_types.uniq! {|victim_detail| victim_detail[1]}
=> nil
Thanks to the 1985 film, Clue, for being a fun inspiration on breaking these down.
Ruby Dooby Doo 