rubyarraysfixnum

Turning long fixed number to array Ruby


Is there a method in ruby to turn fixnum like 74239 into an array like [7,4,2,3,9]?


Solution

  • You don't need to take a round trip through string-land for this sort of thing:

    def digits(n)
      Math.log10(n).floor.downto(0).map { |i| (n / 10**i) % 10 }
    end
    
    ary = digits(74239)
    # [7, 4, 2, 3, 9]
    

    This does assume that n is positive of course, slipping an n = n.abs into the mix can take care of that if needed. If you need to cover non-positive values, then:

    def digits(n)
      return [0] if(n == 0)
      if(n < 0)
        neg = true
        n   = n.abs
      end
      a = Math.log10(n).floor.downto(0).map { |i| (n / 10**i) % 10 }
      a[0] *= -1 if(neg)
      a
    end