Working with Ruby Arrays: Map with Index

A simple method that I'm finding I use a fair amount these days is map_with_index. It works the same way as each_with_index except with the behaviour of map, ie every element of the resulting array is what's returned by the block when the element is yielded to it.

module BarkingIguana
  module ArrayExt
    def map_with_index &block
      index = 0
      map do |element|
        result = yield element, index
        index += 1
        result
      end
    end
  end
end

Array.class_eval do
  include BarkingIguana::ArrayExt
end

Great for situations where eg the first N elements of an array have to be slightly different from the rest of the elements:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5].map_with_index do |element, index|
  model = Model.new element
  model.unlock if index < 3
end

written by

Craig

published

2011-04-01