Subtracting one Array from another in Ruby

ruby arrays array-difference
doctororange picture doctororange · Jul 28, 2009 · Viewed 63k times · Source

I've got two arrays of Tasks - created and assigned. I want to remove all assigned tasks from the array of created tasks. Here's my working, but messy, code:

    @assigned_tasks = @user.assigned_tasks
    @created_tasks = @user.created_tasks

    #Do not show created tasks assigned to self
    @created_not_doing_tasks = Array.new
    @created_tasks.each do |task|
        unless @assigned_tasks.include?(task)
            @created_not_doing_tasks << task
        end
    end

I'm sure there's a better way. What is it? Thanks :-)

Answer

hobodave picture hobodave · Jul 28, 2009

You can subtract arrays in Ruby:

[1,2,3,4,5] - [1,3,4]  #=> [2,5]

ary - other_ary → new_ary Array Difference

Returns a new array that is a copy of the original array, removing any items that also appear in other_ary. The order is preserved from the original array.

It compares elements using their hash and eql? methods for efficiency.

[ 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5 ] - [ 1, 2, 4 ] #=> [ 3, 3, 5 ]

If you need set-like behavior, see the library class Set.

See the Array documentation.

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