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Built-in libraries

What does instance_methods(false) return?

The method instance_methods returns an array containing the names of instance methods in the receiving class or module. This will include the methods in superclasses and in mixed in modules.

instance_methods(false) or instance_methods(nil) returns the names of just those methods which are defined in the receiver.

How do random number seeds work?

If rand is called without a prior call to srand, Ruby’s pseudo-random number generator uses a random(ish) seed that amongst other things uses an entropy source provided by the OS, if available. Successive runs of a program that does not use srand will generate different sequences of random numbers.

For testing purposes, you can get a predictable behavior with the same series of numbers each time the program is run by calling srand with a constant seed.

I read a file and changed it, but the file on disk has not changed.

File.open("example", "r+").readlines.each_with_index do |line, i|
  line[0,0] = "#{i+1}: "
end

This program does not add line numbers to the file example. It does read the contents of the file, and for each line read does prepend the line number, but the data is never written back. The code below does update the file (although somewhat dangerously, as it takes no backup before starting the update):

File.open("example", "r+") do |f|
  lines = f.readlines
  lines.each_with_index {|line, i| line[0,0] = "#{i+1}: " }
  f.rewind
  f.puts lines
end

How can I process a file and update its contents?

Using the command-line option -i, or built-in variable $-i, you can read a file and replace it.

The code in the preceding question, which added line numbers to a file, is probably best written using this technique:

$ ruby -i -ne 'print "#$.: #$_"' example

If you want to preserve the original file, use -i.bak to create a backup.

I wrote a file, copied it, but the end of the copy seems to be lost.

This code will not work correctly:

require "fileutils"

File.open("file", "w").puts "This is a file."
FileUtils.cp("file", "newfile")

Because I/O is buffered, file is being copied before its contents have been written to disk. newfile will probably be empty. However, when the program terminates, the buffers are flushed, and file has the expected content.

The problem doesn’t arise if you make sure that file is closed before copying:

require "fileutils"

File.open("file", "w") {|f| f.puts "This is a file." }
FileUtils.cp("file", "newfile")

How can I get the line number in the current input file?

As you read from a file, Ruby increments a line number counter in the global variable $.. This is also available using the lineno attribute of the File object.

The special constant ARGF is a file-like object that can be used to read all the input files specified on the command line (or standard input if there are no files). ARGF is used implicitly by code such as:

while gets
  print $_
end

In this case, $. will be the cumulative number of lines read across all input files. To get the line number in the current file, use

ARGF.file.lineno

You can also get the name of the current file using ARGF.file.path.

How can I use less to display my program’s output?

I tried the following, but nothing came out:

open("|less", "w").puts "abc"

That’s because the program ends immediately, and less never gets a chance to see the stuff you’ve written to it, never mind to display it. Make sure that the IO is properly closed and it will wait until less ends.

open("|less", "w") {|f| f.puts "abc" }

What happens to a File object which is no longer referenced?

A File object which is no longer referenced becomes eligible for garbage collection. The file will be closed automatically when the File object is garbage collected.

I feel uneasy if I don’t close a file.

There are at least four good ways of ensuring that you do close a file:

# (1)
f = File.open("file")
begin
  f.each {|line| print line }
ensure
  f.close
end

# (2)
File.open("file") do |f|
  f.each {|line| print line }
end

# (3)
File.foreach("file") {|line| print line }

# (4)
File.readlines("file").each {|line| print line }

How can I sort files by their modification time?

Dir.glob("*").sort {|a, b| File.mtime(b) <=> File.mtime(a) }

Although this works (returning a list in reverse chronological order) it isn’t very efficient, as it fetches the files’ modification times from the operating system on every comparison.

More efficiency can be bought with some extra complexity:

Dir.glob("*").map {|f| [File.mtime(f), f] }.
  sort {|a, b| b[0] <=> a[0] }.map(&:last)

How can I count the frequency of words in a file?

freq = Hash.new(0)
File.read("example").scan(/\w+/) {|word| freq[word] += 1 }
freq.keys.sort.each {|word| puts "#{word}: #{freq[word]}" }

Produces:

and: 1
is: 3
line: 3
one: 1
this: 3
three: 1
two: 1

How can I sort strings in alphabetical order?

If you want your strings to sort ‘AAA’, ‘BBB’, …, ‘ZZZ’, ‘aaa’, ‘bbb’, then the built-in comparison will work just fine.

If you want to sort ignoring case distinctions, compare downcased versions of the strings in the sort block:

array = %w( z bB Bb bb Aa BB aA AA aa a A )
array.sort {|a, b| a.downcase <=> b.downcase }
  # => ["a", "A", "Aa", "aA", "AA", "aa", "bB", "Bb", "bb", "BB", "z"]

If you want to sort so that the ‘A’s and ‘a’s come together, but ‘a’ is considered greater than ‘A’ (so ‘Aa’ comes after ‘AA’ but before ‘AB’), use:

array.sort {|a, b| (a.downcase <=> b.downcase).nonzero? || a <=> b }
  # => ["A", "a", "AA", "Aa", "aA", "aa", "BB", "Bb", "bB", "bb", "z"]

How can I expand tabs to spaces?

If a holds the string to be expanded, you could use one of:

1 while a.sub!(/(^[^\t]*)\t(\t*)/){$1+" "*(8-$1.size%8+8*$2.size)}
# or
1 while a.sub!(/\t(\t*)/){" "*(8-$~.begin(0)%8+8*$1.size)}
# or
a.gsub!(/([^\t]{8})|([^\t]*)\t/n){[$+].pack("A8")}

How can I escape a backslash in a regular expression?

Regexp.quote('\\') escapes a backslash.

It gets trickier if you are using sub and gsub. Say you write gsub(/\\/, '\\\\'), hoping to replace each backslash with two. The second argument is converted to '\\' in syntax analysis. When the substitution occurs, the regular expression engine converts this to '\', so the net effect is to replace each single backslash with another single backslash. You need to write gsub(/\\/, '\\\\\\')!

However, using the fact that \& contains the matched string, you could also write gsub(/\\/, '\&\&').

If you use the block form of gsub, i.e. gsub(/\\/) { '\\\\' }, the string for substitution is analyzed only once (during the syntax pass) and the result is what you intended.

What is the difference between sub and sub!?

In sub, a copy of the receiver is generated, substituted, and returned.

In sub!, the receiver is altered and returned if any match was found. Otherwise, nil is returned.

Methods like sub!, which alter the attribute of the receiver, are called destructive methods. Usually, if there are two similar methods and one is destructive, the destructive one has a suffix !.

def foo(str)
  str.sub(/foo/, "baz")
end

obj = "foo"
foo(obj)  # => "baz"
obj       # => "foo"

def foo(str)
  str.sub!(/foo/, "baz")
end

foo(obj)  # => "baz"
obj       # => "baz"

Where does \Z match?

\Z matches just before the last \n (newline) if the string ends with a \n, otherwise it matches at the end of a string.

What is the difference between thread and fork?

This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.

Ruby threads are implemented within the interpreter, while fork invokes the operating system to create a separately executing subprocess.

Thread and fork have the following characteristics:

• fork is slow, thread is not.
• fork does not share the memory space.
• thread does not cause thrashing.
• thread works on DOS.
• When thread gets in a deadlock, the whole process stops.
• fork can take advantage of pauses waiting for I/O to complete, thread does not (at least not without some help).

You probably shouldn’t mix fork and thread.

How can I use Marshal?

Marshal is used to store an object in a file or a string, and later reconstitute it. Objects may be stored using:

Marshal.dump( obj [, io ] [, lev] )

io is a writable IO object, lev designates the level to which objects are dereferred and stored. If lev levels of dereferring are done and object references still exist, then dump stores just the reference, not the object referenced. This is not good, as these referenced objects cannot be subsequently reconstructed.

If io is omitted, the marshaled objects are returned in a string.

You can load objects back using:

obj = Marshal.load(io)
# or
obj = Marshal.load(str)

where io is a readable IO object, str is the dumped string.

How can I use trap?

trap associates code blocks with external events (signals).

trap("PIPE") { raise "SIGPIPE" }

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