Type:
Class
A class which allows both internal and external iteration.
An Enumerator can be created by the following methods.
-
Kernel#to_enum
-
Kernel#enum_for
Most methods have two forms: a block form where the contents are evaluated for each item in the enumeration, and a non-block form which returns a new Enumerator wrapping the iteration.
enumerator = %w(one two three).each
puts enumerator.class # => Enumerator
enumerator.each_with_object("foo") do |item, obj|
puts "#{obj}: #{item}"
end
# foo: one
# foo: two
# foo: three
enum_with_obj = enumerator.each_with_object("foo")
puts enum_with_obj.class # => Enumerator
enum_with_obj.each do |item, obj|
puts "#{obj}: #{item}"
end
# foo: one
# foo: two
# foo: three
This allows you to chain Enumerators together. For example, you can map a list's elements to strings containing the index and the element as a string via:
puts %w[foo bar baz].map.with_index { |w, i| "#{i}:#{w}" }
# => ["0:foo", "1:bar", "2:baz"]
An Enumerator can also be used as an external iterator. For example, #next returns the next value of the iterator or raises StopIteration if the Enumerator is at the end.
e = [1,2,3].each # returns an enumerator object. puts e.next # => 1 puts e.next # => 2 puts e.next # => 3 puts e.next # raises StopIteration
You can use this to implement an internal iterator as follows:
def ext_each(e)
while true
begin
vs = e.next_values
rescue StopIteration
return $!.result
end
y = yield(*vs)
e.feed y
end
end
o = Object.new
def o.each
puts yield
puts yield(1)
puts yield(1, 2)
3
end
# use o.each as an internal iterator directly.
puts o.each {|*x| puts x; [:b, *x] }
# => [], [:b], [1], [:b, 1], [1, 2], [:b, 1, 2], 3
# convert o.each to an external iterator for
# implementing an internal iterator.
puts ext_each(o.to_enum) {|*x| puts x; [:b, *x] }
# => [], [:b], [1], [:b, 1], [1, 2], [:b, 1, 2], 3