Arrays are ordered, indexed collections of data that can have various types. An ordered collection means that it is "in order". When you line up with your classmates at school in a lunch line, you are a collection of kids in an ordered line. Arrays are kind of like that. You can order the line of kids in many different ways. You could order from tallest to shortest. You could line up in oldest to youngest, or you could line up in shortest hair to longest hair. No matter which way you lined up the kids, you’d still be in some kind of order. In code, you’d be in an Array.
Let’s say there was a line of kids: Adam, Billy, Molly and Sally. This line of kids is in alphabetical order, with Adam in front followed by the rest. That means that Adam is number 1, Billy is number 2, Molly is number 3 and Sally is number 4. These are four kids in an ordered line. If we were to write this as an array, it would look like this:
["Adam", "Billy", "Molly", "Sally"]
Arrays are noted using square brackets, with indexed elements separated by a comma. When a collection is indexed, it means that each item has a specific number that relates to its order in line. The tricky part to remember is that computers start their index at zero. This means that Adam’s index is 0, Billy is 1, Molly is 2 and Sally is 3.
One way to think about indexes is distance. Adam is first in the array, so he is zero units away from himself. Billy is next, only 1 unit away from Adam. Molly is 2 units away, and Sally is 3 units away from Adam. You could also think of array indexes like a number line, which also starts at zero.
Here’s what our array looks like with its index.
kids_array = ["Adam", "Billy", "Molly", "Sally"]
# kids_array index => [0,1,2,3]
If we want the first element in our ordered array, we look it up by the first index. The first index in any array is zero. We can find an element by its index using the [ ] method.
kids_array[0]
=> "Adam"
You can think of the brackets like big monkey paws, they clamp down on both sides of the element (whatever the object) and hold it. If you type kids_array[0] you are asking Ruby to get the first spot. In this case, Ruby would tell you that Adam is at index zero.
We can also use the [ ] method to add or change an element in our array. For example, if Sally left to another school and Terry replaced her spot, we could remove Sally and replace her with Terry by using the [ ] method on the correct index number.
kids_array = ["Adam", "Billy", "Molly", "Sally"]
kids_array[3] = "Terry"
kids_array
=> ["Adam", "Billy", "Molly", "Terry"]
We can even add a new member to our array, like so.
kids_array[4] = "Zoe"
kids_array
=> ["Adam", "Billy", "Molly", "Terry", "Zoe"]
Arrays can contain numbers, strings and even other arrays!
number_array = [1,2,3,4,5]
string_array = ["Frank", "Suzy", "Doug", "Jane"]
mixed_array = [number_array, "a string", 13]
If we had an array inside another array, we can use the square brackets in a similar way to access our data. In the example below, in order to grab the number 2, we use square brackets to access the first element in our array (which is another array). We then use another bracket to access the number two, the second element in that array.
lots_of_arrays = [[1,2],"string","test"]
lots_of_arrays[0][1]
=> 2
Ruby gives us some cool methods to call on arrays, like sort. When we call the sort method on our string_array, Ruby sorts our array alphabetically. In Ruby, whenever we use the sort method, the computer understands we want to see the entire array alphabetized.
string_array.sort
=> ["Doug", "Frank", "Jane", "Suzy"]
However, unless we call sort! on the array, the order will not change permanently and our array will stay in its original state. When we ask to sort without an exclamation mark, only the result is sorted (not the actual array). When we call sort! with the exclamation mark, the actual array is sorted in the new alphabetized order.
string_array
=> ["Frank", "Suzy", "Doug", "Jane"]
string_array.sort!
=> ["Doug", "Frank", "Jane", "Suzy"]
Before we get into more examples about arrays, it’s important to mention one of Ruby’s widely used array methods--the shovel. The shovel is written with two less-than symbols << that are used to insert items to the end of an array. Let’s take the example above and add Bill to our string array.
string_array
=> ["Doug", "Frank", "Jane", "Suzy"]
string_array << "Bill"
=> ["Doug", "Frank", "Jane", "Suzy", "Bill"]
We could have added Bill with the push method as well.
string_array.push("Bill")
=> ["Doug", "Frank", "Jane", "Suzy", "Bill"]
The shovel method is favored by Rubyists and it’s good to know how it works. More examples on arrays in the practice section.