Question

I’m using Array.sample to return a random element from an array.

I want to then get the index of that element to generate a permalink. Is there a built in method to do this? Or will I need to roll my own?

Answer 1

I don’t think there is a pre-baked solution but you can make your own easily enough. You could use sample on the indices:

i = (0 .. a.length).to_a.sample
e = a[i]

That gives you both the index, i, and the sampled element, e. Or, since you’re just extracting a sample of size one, use rand directly and skip all the sample noise:

i = rand(a.length)
e = a[i]