Array Methods

Arrays are accessed with square brackets:

a = [ "a", "b", "c", "d", "e" ] a[2] + a[0] + a[1] => "cab" a[6] => nil a[1, 2] => ["b", "c"] a[1..3] => ["b", "c", "d"] a[4..7] => ["e"] a[6..10] => nil a[-3, 3] => ["c", "d", "e"]

Many of the array functions we know and love in Perl are methods in Ruby's Array class:

a.pop => "e" a => [ "a", "b", "c", "d" ] a.shift => "a" a => [ "b", "c", "d" ] a.push('z') => [ "b", "c", "d", "z" ] a.map{|x| x.upcase} => [ "B", "C", "D", "Z" ]

Some differences:

a = [] => [] a.empty? => true a = %w(dog cat pony) => ["dog", "cat", "pony"] a.empty? => false b = a.sort => ["cat", "dog", "pony"] a => ["dog", "cat", "pony"] a.sort! => ["cat", "dog", "pony"] a => ["cat", "dog", "pony"]