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Feature #16155

closed

Add an Array#intersection method

Added by connorshea (Connor Shea) about 5 years ago. Updated about 5 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Assignee:
-
Target version:
-
[ruby-core:94855]

Description

Array#union and Array#difference were added in Ruby 2.6 (see this bug), but an equivalent for & (intersection) was not.

I'd like to propose Array#intersection. This would essentially just be a more readable alias for Array#&, in the same way that Array#| and Array#- have Array#union and Array#difference.

I think it'd make sense for Ruby to have a more readable name for this method :)

Current syntax:

[ 1, 1, 3, 5 ] & [ 3, 2, 1 ]                 #=> [ 1, 3 ]
[ 'a', 'b', 'b', 'z' ] & [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]   #=> [ 'a', 'b' ]

What I'd like to see added:

[ 1, 1, 3, 5 ].intersection([ 3, 2, 1 ])                #=> [ 1, 3 ]
[ 'a', 'b', 'b', 'z' ].intersection([ 'a', 'b', 'c' ])  #=> [ 'a', 'b' ]

mame asks about intersection in this comment on the union/difference bug, but as far as I can tell it was never addressed.

Set#intersection already exists and is an alias for Set#&, so there's precedent for such a method to exist.

Thanks for Ruby, I enjoy using it a lot! :)

Related links:

Actions #1

Updated by shevegen (Robert A. Heiler) about 5 years ago

I sort of agree with your reasoning. A slight add-on, though,
on that part:

This would essentially just be a more readable alias for Array#&

It is probably easier to search for it (e. g. a google-search for
.intersection) than for &. But if we compare relative merits then
we also have to remember an advantage for & being that it is
short/succinct.

It's an aside, though, because I agree with your reasoning anyway;
it would make sense to also have .intersection, IMO. :)

You could consider adding this to the upcoming developer meeting:

https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16152

And ask matz whether he would be fine with the functionality
itself; or, more importantly, the name for the method
(#intersection) since the functionality already exists.

Updated by connorshea (Connor Shea) about 5 years ago

shevegen (Robert A. Heiler) wrote:

You could consider adding this to the upcoming developer meeting:

https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16152

And ask matz whether he would be fine with the functionality
itself; or, more importantly, the name for the method
(#intersection) since the functionality already exists.

Thanks, I will :)

After thinking about the proposal a bit more, one other thing I wanted to ask was about whether we should allow multiple arrays to be passed as arguments. Array#difference and Array#union both allow this, so it might make sense to have Array#intersection also take multiple arguments.

For example:

# intersection with multiple arguments.
[ 'a', 'b', 'b', 'z' ].intersection([ 'a', 'b', 'c' ], [ 'b' ])  #=> [ 'b' ]

Should we keep intersection as a simple alias for & or have it allow multiple arrays, to match the difference and union methods?

Updated by phluid61 (Matthew Kerwin) about 5 years ago

connorshea (Connor Shea) wrote:

Should we keep intersection as a simple alias for & or have it allow multiple arrays, to match the difference and union methods?

The question should be: is it needed?

Updated by matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) about 5 years ago

Accepted. PR welcome.

Matz.

Updated by prajjwal (Prajjwal Singh) about 5 years ago

Hi all,

I've added an initial implementation of this based on Array#& on github (https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/2533).

One thing that stands out to me is the naming inconsistency between rb_ary_and and rb_ary_intersection_multi, and I think either could be changed to be consistent with the other. Thoughts?

Updated by prajjwal (Prajjwal Singh) about 5 years ago

Implementation is currently based on Array#&, which is elegant but might end up allocating a whole bunch of arrays holding intermediate results. If needed I can implement Array#intersection so it only allocates the result array once, but then I would like to rewrite Array#& in terms of Array#intersection to keep things DRY.

static VALUE
rb_ary_intersection_multi(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE ary)
{
    VALUE result = rb_ary_dup(ary);
    int i;

    for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
        result = rb_ary_and(result, argv[i]);
    }

    return result;
}

Let me know what you think.

Actions #7

Updated by nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada) about 5 years ago

  • Status changed from Open to Closed
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