Enumerable avoids using temporary variables when looping

Some of my favourite Ruby features are to be found in the Enumerable module. You can read more about it in the Ruby documentation.

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A class representing a collection, such as Array, Set or Hash, has the methods and features of Enumerable included. These methods allow you to loop through the members of that group and take an action using each member of the collection as an input.

Instead of…

…using a C-style loop with a temporary variable, which would be fine in many other languages.

total = 0
[1, 3, 5, 7].each do |num|
  total += num
end
total

Use…

…your deep love of one of Ruby’s Enumerable methods, and implement using #inject.

[1, 3, 5, 7].inject(0) do |total, number|
  total += number
end

Or better…

…there’s a convenient #sum method in Enumerable.

[1, 3, 5, 7].sum

But why?

The longer I’ve used Ruby the more joy I find in the elegance enabled by its Enumerable methods. Using these constructions lead you write idiomatic Ruby, which is a smart sounding way of saying you’re writing Ruby in a Ruby-ish manner.

When dealing with larger loops there are often significant improvements to memory usage and speed when using built-in Enumerable methods.

If you ever see the “temporary variable setup” at the beginning of a loop there’s most likely an opportunity to express yourself more concisely with an Enumerable method.

Why not?

Methods like #inject might seem confusing and be unfamiliar to newer Rubyists. They are a fundamental benefit of using Ruby, so you might as well dive in.

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