Is there a method to limit/clamp a number?

Question

I wrote the following code, which keeps x within the range (a..b). In pseudo code:

(if x < a, x = a; if x > b, x = b)
         


        

Answer 1

The most appealing solution for now in my opinion is the sort option:

[min,x,max].sort[1] 

When you don't mind monkey patching existing core classes. I think the range class is a good candidate for a clamp method

class Range
  def clamp(v)
    [min,v,max].sort[1]
  end
end

(min..max).clamp(v)

Or the plain array object. I don't like this, because the clamp function only is correct for 3 element arrays

class Array
    def clamp
      sort[1]
    end
end

You can call it like this:

[a,x,b].clamp