CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubyarrays
shohe_i
shohe_i

Reputation: 67

Comparing the contents in the array

How can I compare the values in the array to each other in ruby?

I would like to compare the values in the array to check the maximum value of the array.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 118

Answers (4)

maerics
maerics

Reputation: 156384

Ruby arrays (or anything that includes the Enumerable module) have a max method:

a = [20, 30, 100, 2, 3]
a.max # => 100

If you wanted to write your own for educational purposes, you could iterate over the array while retaining the largest value seen at each point:

class Array
  def my_max
    max = nil # Default "max" to nil, since we haven't seen any values yet.
    self.each { |x| max = x if (!x || x>max) } # Update with bigger value(s).
    max # Return the max value discovered.
  end
end

Or, if you are interested in functional programming consider using the Enumerable reduce method, which generalizes the process in the my_max version and uses the ternary operator for brevity:

class Array
  def my_max2
    self.reduce(nil) { |max,x| (!max || x>max) ? x : max }
  end
end

Upvotes: 1

phil88530
phil88530

Reputation: 1509

If you are comparing integers, then 

[1,3,2].max will do the work

if you are comparing integers that are stored in string format, try:

["1","3","2"].map(&:to_i).max

which will convert your string array into an int array first, and apply the max method

If you going to use such comparison often, I suggest you store the actual array in int format, so it actually saves you server some work times.

Upvotes: 1

saihgala
saihgala

Reputation: 5774

you can simply invoke max 

a = [1,2,3,4]
a.max # outputs 4

Also for minimum value you can do 

a.min # outputs 1

Upvotes: 0

Sergio Tulentsev
Sergio Tulentsev

Reputation: 230286

Do you want to find the maximum? It's already been done.

[1, 5, 3].max # => 5

Upvotes: 5

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