Split an array of hashes into an array of arrays of hashes

Rails
1

Hello, I have this big array of hashes:
A =[ h0, h1, h2, …, hn]
some hi’s’ :cue key is true, others’ is false.
e.g.,
h1[:cue] = false
h2[:cue] = false
h3[:cue] = true
h4[:cue] = false
h5[:cue] = true
…
hn[:cue] = …

Again, these hashes are in an array, A.

Now, I’d like to group them into smaller arrays whose last item has a
true cue
so
A’ = [ [h1, h2, h3], [h4, h5], … , […] ]

Is there a built-in method to cook this up?
If not, what combination of methods might you think would work most
efficiently?

Thank You

2

On Aug 6, 2009, at 3:22 PM, Nik wrote:

…
If not, what combination of methods might you think would work most
efficiently?

Thank You

Well, this seems to be a tasty dish. I took some liberty with your
minimal spec, but you should see the first test for the usage that
maps to your example.

#!/usr/bin/ruby -w
class Array
def split_when
result = [[]]
each do |element|
result[-1] << element
if block_given? ? yield(element) : element
result << []
end
end
result.pop if result.last.empty?
result
end
end

if File.expand_path($0) == File.expand_path(FILE)
require ‘test/unit’
class SplitWhenTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
def setup
h1 = { :cue => false }
h2 = { :cue => false }
h3 = { :cue => true }
h4 = { :cue => false }
h5 = { :cue => true }
@ary = [ h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 ]
@expected = [ [h1, h2, h3], [h4, h5] ]
end

def test_example_from_email
assert_equal @expected, @ary.split_when {|e| e[:cue]}
end

def test_simple
original = [ false, true, false, false, true, true, false,
true, false, true, false ]
expected = [[false, true],[false, false, true],[true],[false,
true],[false, true],[false]]
assert_equal expected, original.split_when, “no block”
assert_equal expected, original.split_when {|e|e}, “simple block”
end
end
end
END

:code/ruby $ ./array_split_when.rb
Loaded suite ./array_split_when
Started
…
Finished in 0.000585 seconds.

2 tests, 3 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

3

Thanks Rob, in line 6 (where #!/usr/bin/ruby -w is line 1) where
results[-1]<<element, is there a check to verify that the element’s
cue is true and henceforth start a new and empty array?

4

Hey Rob,

Just got a very simple version to work. Based on your code

def self.split_when(*value)
results = [[]]
each do |element|
results.last << element
if value.include?(element)
results << []
end
end
results
end

So, again, A = [h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, …, hn]
and some for some hi, hi[:cue] = true.
I then run

A.split_when({:cue=>true})

to get

[[h1,h2,h3], [h4, h5], … , [hj,…,hn] ]

Thanks again for the detailed code!

On Aug 7, 12:14 pm, Rob B. [email protected]

5

On Aug 7, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Nik wrote:

Thanks Rob, in line 6 (where #!/usr/bin/ruby -w is line 1) where
results[-1]<<element, is there a check to verify that the element’s
cue is true and henceforth start a new and empty array?

No, but lines 7…9 do and line 11 discards the empty array when the
last element was a cutoff (element[:cue] in this case) and was not
needed to hold other elements.

-Rob

h4[:cue] = false
A’ = [ [h1, h2, h3], [h4, h5], … , […] ]

 result.pop if result.last.empty?
 h3 = { :cue => true  }

def test_simple
END

:code/ruby $ ./array_split_when.rb
Loaded suite ./array_split_when
Started
…
Finished in 0.000585 seconds.

2 tests, 3 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]