UPDATE 2: For posterity, this is how I've settled on doing it (thanks to Jorg's input):
100.step(2, -2) do |x|
# my code
end
(Obviously there are plenty of ways to do this; but it sounds like this is the most "Ruby" way to do it; and that's exactly what I was after.)
UPDATE: OK, so what I was looking for was step
:
(2..100).step(2) do |x|
# my code
end
But it turns out that I wasn't 100% forthcoming in my original question. I actually want to iterate over this range backwards. To my surprise, a negative step isn't legal.
(100..2).step(-2) do |x|
# ArgumentError: step can't be negative
end
So: how do I do this backwards?
I am completely new to Ruby, so be gentle.
Say I want to iterate over the range of even numbers from 2 to 100; how would I do that?
Obviously I could do:
(2..100).each do |x|
if x % 2 == 0
# my code
end
end
But, obviously (again), that would be pretty stupid.
I know I could do something like:
i = 2
while i <= 100
# my code
i += 2
end
I believe I could also write my own custom class that provides its own each
method (?). I am almost sure that would be overkill, though.
I'm interested in two things:
- Is it possible to do this with some variation of the standard Range syntax (i.e.,
(x..y).each
)? - Either way, what would be the most idiomatic "Ruby way" of accomplishing this (using a Range or otherwise)? Like I said, I'm new to the language; so any guidance you can offer on how to do things in a more typical Ruby style would be much appreciated.
Best Answer
You can't declare a
Range
with a "step". Ranges don't have steps, they simply have a beginning and an end.You can certainly iterate over a
Range
in steps, for example like this:But if all you want is to iterate, then what do you need the
Range
for in the first place? Why not just iterate?This has the added benefit that unlike
reverse_each
it does not need to generate an intermediate array.