This explanation is based on a commented Ruby script from a friend of mine. If you want to improve the script, feel free to update it at the link.
First, note that when Ruby calls out to a shell, it typically calls /bin/sh
, not Bash. Some Bash syntax is not supported by /bin/sh
on all systems.
Here are ways to execute a shell script:
cmd = "echo 'hi'" # Sample string that can be used
Kernel#`
, commonly called backticks – `cmd`
This is like many other languages, including Bash, PHP, and Perl.
Returns the result (i.e. standard output) of the shell command.
Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-60
value = `echo 'hi'`
value = `#{cmd}`
Built-in syntax, %x( cmd )
Following the x
character is a delimiter, which can be any character.
If the delimiter is one of the characters (
, [
, {
, or <
,
the literal consists of the characters up to the matching closing delimiter,
taking account of nested delimiter pairs. For all other delimiters, the
literal comprises the characters up to the next occurrence of the
delimiter character. String interpolation #{ ... }
is allowed.
Returns the result (i.e. standard output) of the shell command, just like the backticks.
Docs: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/syntax/literals_rdoc.html#label-Percent+Strings
value = %x( echo 'hi' )
value = %x[ #{cmd} ]
Kernel#system
Executes the given command in a subshell.
Returns true
if the command was found and run successfully, false
otherwise.
Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-system
wasGood = system( "echo 'hi'" )
wasGood = system( cmd )
Kernel#exec
Replaces the current process by running the given external command.
Returns none, the current process is replaced and never continues.
Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-exec
exec( "echo 'hi'" )
exec( cmd ) # Note: this will never be reached because of the line above
Here's some extra advice:
$?
, which is the same as $CHILD_STATUS
, accesses the status of the last system executed command if you use the backticks, system()
or %x{}
.
You can then access the exitstatus
and pid
properties:
$?.exitstatus
For more reading see:
.nil?
can be used on any object and is true if the object is nil.
.empty?
can be used on strings, arrays and hashes and returns true if:
- String length == 0
- Array length == 0
- Hash length == 0
Running .empty?
on something that is nil will throw a NoMethodError
.
That is where .blank?
comes in. It is implemented by Rails and will operate on any object as well as work like .empty?
on strings, arrays and hashes.
nil.blank? == true
false.blank? == true
[].blank? == true
{}.blank? == true
"".blank? == true
5.blank? == false
0.blank? == false
.blank?
also evaluates true on strings which are non-empty but contain only whitespace:
" ".blank? == true
" ".empty? == false
Rails also provides .present?
, which returns the negation of .blank?
.
Array gotcha: blank?
will return false
even if all elements of an array are blank. To determine blankness in this case, use all?
with blank?
, for example:
[ nil, '' ].blank? == false
[ nil, '' ].all? &:blank? == true
Best Answer
Try this:
Note the
.to_f
, which you'll want for avoiding any problems from integer division. You can also do:You can define it as part of
Array
as another commenter has suggested, but you need to avoid integer division or your results will be wrong. Also, this isn't generally applicable to every possible element type (obviously, an average only makes sense for things that can be averaged). But if you want to go that route, use this:If you haven't seen
inject
before, it's not as magical as it might appear. It iterates over each element and then applies an accumulator value to it. The accumulator is then handed to the next element. In this case, our accumulator is simply an integer that reflects the sum of all the previous elements.Edit: Commenter Dave Ray proposed a nice improvement.
Edit: Commenter Glenn Jackman's proposal, using
arr.inject(:+).to_f
, is nice too but perhaps a bit too clever if you don't know what's going on. The:+
is a symbol; when passed to inject, it applies the method named by the symbol (in this case, the addition operation) to each element against the accumulator value.