Ruby array creation, Array.new vs []

Question

What\'s the difference between these two statements? I use them in my rails app and to me it looks like they do the same thing

array_a = Array.new
array_b =          


        

Answer 1

[] is a shortcut to the Array class's singleton method [] which in turn creates a new Array in just the same way as Array.new, so you could probably say 'they are the same' without worrying too much.

Note that each call to [] in irb creates a new Array:

>> [].object_id
=> 2148067340
>> [].object_id
=> 2149414040

From Ruby's C code:

rb_define_singleton_method(rb_cArray, "[]", rb_ary_s_create, -1);