How to initialize an array in one step using Ruby?

Question

I initialize an array this way:

array = Array.new
array << \'1\' << \'2\' << \'3\'

Is it possible to do that in one s

Answer 1

You can do

array = ['1', '2', '3']

As others have noted, you can also initialize an array with %w notation like so:

array = %w(1 2 3)

or

array = %w[1 2 3]

Please note that in both cases each element is a string, rather than an integer. So if you want an array whose elements are integers, you should not wrap each element with apostrophes:

array_of_integers = [1, 2, 3]

Also, you don't need to put comma in between the elements (which is necessary when creating an array without this %w notation). If you do this (which I often did by mistake), as in:

wrong_array = %w(1, 2, 3)

its elements will be three strings ---- "1,", "2,", "3". So if you do:

puts wrong_array

the output will be:

1,
2,
3
=>nil

which is not what we want here.

Hope this helps to clarify the point!