Dissapearing data from array

Ruby
1

Hi all.

I have the next problem.

a = %w(a b)
z = %w(1)
a.insert(1, z)
puts a
a
1
b

z.clear
puts a
a
b

Oopss… where “1” is? what happened? what can I do to keep “1” when I
clear the array (z)?

Thanks a lot.

2

On Apr 7, 2010, at 7:47 PM, Noé Alejandro wrote:

b
Try

puts a.inspect
#=> [“a”, [“1”], “b”]

z.clear
puts a
a
b

puts a.inspect
#=> [“a”, [], “b”]

Oopss… where “1” is? what happened? what can I do to keep “1” when I
clear the array (z)?

Ruby uses references. So a.insert(1, z) inserts a reference to z at
position 1 in the array. So once you clear z, it will be cleared
noticed by everyone referring to it - a, in this case.

Regards,
Florian

3

From what i’ve understood your aim is to “detach” the reference of the
inserted element from the original one. That can be done with z.clone,
in your example it will look like this:

a = %w(a b)
z = %w(1)
a.insert(1, z.clone)
z.clear
puts a
a
1
b

–
Andrea D.

4

Thanks guys… Florian for your explanation, Andrea for your solution.
Now I understand what happens and how to solve it.