Question

I need to convert a passed in argument (single object or collection) to an Array. I don’t know what the argument is. If it is an Array already, I want to leave it, otherwise create a one-element array from it. I’m looking to allow both method(:objs => obj) and method(:objs => [obj1, obj2])

This seems to be the best way (Array#to_a returns self):

arg = arg.to_a 

But the ruby docs say Object#to_a will soon be obsolete. Is there convenient replacement?

Anything more succinct than this?

arg = arg.respond_to?(:to_a) ? arg.to_a : [arg] 

Answer 1

Use the method Kernel#Array:

Array([1,2,3]) #=> [1, 2, 3] Array(123) #=> [123] 

Yes it may look like a class at first but this is actually a method that starts with a capital letter.