Magic First and Last Indicator in a Loop in Ruby/Rails?

Question

Ruby/Rails does lots of cool stuff when it comes to sugar for basic things, and I think there\'s a very common scenario that I was wondering if anyone has done a helper or s

Answer 1

I needed this functionality from time to time, so I crafted a little class for that purpose.

The latest version is at: https://gist.github.com/3823837

Sample:

("a".."m").to_a.each_pos do |e|
  puts "Char\tfirst?\tlast?\tprev\tnext\twrapped?\tindex\tposition" if e.first?
  print "#{e.item}\t"
  print "#{e.first?}\t"
  print "#{e.last?}\t"
  print "#{e.prev}\t"
  print "#{e.next}\t"
  print "#{e.wrapped?}\t\t"
  print "#{e.index}\t"
  puts  "#{e.position}\t"
end

# Char  first?  last?  prev  next  wrapped?  index  position
# a     true    false        b     false     0      1
# b     false   false  a     c     true      1      2
# c     false   false  b     d     true      2      3
# d     false   false  c     e     true      3      4
# e     false   false  d     f     true      4      5
# f     false   false  e     g     true      5      6
# g     false   false  f     h     true      6      7
# h     false   false  g     i     true      7      8
# i     false   false  h     j     true      8      9
# j     false   false  i     k     true      9      10
# k     false   false  j     l     true      10     11
# l     false   false  k     m     true      11     12
# m     false   true   l           false     12     13



{
  a: "0",
  b: "1",
  c: "2",
  d: "3",
  e: "4",
  f: "5",
  g: "6",
  h: "7",
  i: "8",
  j: "9",
  k: "10",
  l: "11",
  m: "12",
}.each_pos do |(k, v), e|
  puts "KV\tChar\t\tfirst?\tlast?\tprev\t\tnext\t\twrapped?\tindex\tposition" if e.first?
  print "#{k} => #{v}\t"
  print "#{e.item}\t"
  print "#{e.first?}\t"
  print "#{e.last?}\t"
  print "#{e.prev || "\t"}\t"
  print "#{e.next || "\t"}\t"
  print "#{e.wrapped?}\t\t"
  print "#{e.index}\t"
  puts  "#{e.position}\t"
end

# KV      Char        first?  last?   prev        next        wrapped?  index position
# a => 0  [:a, "0"]   true    false               [:b, "1"]   false     0     1
# b => 1  [:b, "1"]   false   false   [:a, "0"]   [:c, "2"]   true      1     2
# c => 2  [:c, "2"]   false   false   [:b, "1"]   [:d, "3"]   true      2     3
# d => 3  [:d, "3"]   false   false   [:c, "2"]   [:e, "4"]   true      3     4
# e => 4  [:e, "4"]   false   false   [:d, "3"]   [:f, "5"]   true      4     5
# f => 5  [:f, "5"]   false   false   [:e, "4"]   [:g, "6"]   true      5     6
# g => 6  [:g, "6"]   false   false   [:f, "5"]   [:h, "7"]   true      6     7
# h => 7  [:h, "7"]   false   false   [:g, "6"]   [:i, "8"]   true      7     8
# i => 8  [:i, "8"]   false   false   [:h, "7"]   [:j, "9"]   true      8     9
# j => 9  [:j, "9"]   false   false   [:i, "8"]   [:k, "10"]  true      9     10
# k => 10 [:k, "10"]  false   false   [:j, "9"]   [:l, "11"]  true      10    11
# l => 11 [:l, "11"]  false   false   [:k, "10"]  [:m, "12"]  true      11    12
# m => 12 [:m, "12"]  false   true    [:l, "11"]              false     12    13

Actual class:

module Enumerable
  # your each_with_position method
  def each_pos &block
    EachWithPosition.each(self, &block)
  end
end

class EachWithPosition
  attr_reader :index

  class << self
    def each *a, &b
      handler = self.new(*a, :each, &b)
    end
  end

  def initialize collection, method, &block
    @index = 0
    @item, @prev, @next = nil
    @collection = collection
    @callback = block
    self.send(method)
  end

  def count
    @collection.count
  end
  alias_method :length, :count
  alias_method :size, :count

  def rest
    count - position
  end

  def first?
    @index == 0
  end

  def last?
    @index == (count - 1)
  end

  def wrapped?
    !first? && !last?
  end
  alias_method :inner?, :wrapped?

  def position
    @index + 1
  end

  def prev
    @prev
  end

  def next
    @next
  end

  def current
    @item
  end
  alias_method :item, :current
  alias_method :value, :current

  def call
    if @callback.arity == 1
      @callback.call(self)
    else
      @callback.call(@item, self)
    end
  end

  def each
    @collection.each_cons(2) do |e, n|
      @prev = @item
      @item = e
      @next = n

      self.call
      @index += 1

      # fix cons slice behaviour
      if last?
        @prev, @item, @next = @item, @next, nil
        self.call
        @index += 1
      end
    end
  end
end