# Array#abbrev depreciated?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 14, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791 "2009-08-14T22:27:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/1 "2009-08-14T22:27:07Z")

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If you look at the core ruby doc, it says Array#abbrev will let you do  
this:

%w{ car cone }.abbrev #=\> { “ca” =\> “car”, “car” =\> “car”,  
“co” =\> “cone”, “con” =\> cone",  
“cone” =\> “cone” }

But if I try this in IRB, I get:

irb(main):002:0\> %w{ car cone }.abbrev  
NoMethodError: undefined method `abbrev’ for [“car”, “cone”]:Array  
from (irb):2

Is Array#abbrev depreciated?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/2 "2009-08-14T22:33:12Z")

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Jason L. wrote:

> NoMethodError: undefined method `abbrev’ for [“car”, “cone”]:Array  
> from (irb):2
> 
> Is Array#abbrev depreciated?

require ‘abbrev’ # it’s in the stdlib, not core

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/3 "2009-08-15T06:10:54Z")

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Jason L. wrote:

> NoMethodError: undefined method `abbrev’ for [“car”, “cone”]:Array  
> from (irb):2
> 
> Is Array#abbrev depreciated?

require ‘abbrev’

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/4 "2009-08-15T08:35:03Z")

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Jason L. wrote:

> Is Array#abbrev depreciated?

Yes, ruby changed accountants, and the new accountants have decided to  
depreciate abbrev over the next five years for a tax write off.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/5 "2009-08-15T17:11:17Z")

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Tim H. wrote:

> require ‘abbrev’

I didn’t realize that a class from the core library would have methods  
from the standard library. I know ruby classes can be extended, but I  
just didn’t expect it here.

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/6 "2009-08-15T19:35:28Z")

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7stud – wrote:

> Yes, ruby changed accountants, and the new accountants have decided to  
> depreciate abbrev over the next five years for a tax write off.

oops. Deprecated. You can tell I’m new at this. 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@leveille](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/leveille)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/array-abbrev-depreciated/173791/7 "2009-08-19T12:49:50Z")

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On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 6:10 AM, Tim H.[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > Is Array#abbrev depreciated?
> 
> require ‘abbrev’

I wish this would be obvious from rdoc/ri documentation.