Question

I have an Array that contains some elements multiple times. Now I want to create a new Array with one of those elements deleted.

Example:

a = [1,1,1,2]
delete_index = a.find_index(1)
result = a.clone
result.delete_at(delete_index)
# result is now [1,1,2]

This code looks really ugly for such an easy task. I had a look at the methods that Array provides, but couldn’t find a better way of doing this.

Answer 1

You could monkey patch Array:

class Array
  def delete_first_occurrence(o)
    delete_at(find_index(o) || length)
    self
  end
end

a = [1,1,1,2]
result = a.clone.delete_first_occurrence(1)
 => [1, 1, 2]