Question

What I want to do is something like this:

arr = %w(good bad great dull)
"Today was a #{arr.sample} day"

Say I wanted to then loop this 100 times and count each sampled element, and collect the counters in a separate hash or array, how would I do that? And would this be better approached with a hash or an array?

Something like:

counter = []
arr.each { |el| counter << [el => 0] }

100.times do 
  el = arr.sample
  # lost here..
end

Output I want (array or hash):

["good" => 20, "bad" => 20, "great" => 40, "dull" => 20]

I also figure there is a more elegant solution to my first way of thinking.

Answer 1

Perhaps this is what you want?

arr = %w(good bad great dull)
counter = Hash.new(0)
100.times { counter[arr.sample] += 1 }
counter #=> {"great"=>22, "good"=>29, "bad"=>21, "dull"=>28}

You could also do:

arr = %w(good bad great dull)
(1..100).each_with_object(Hash.new(0)) { |_, h| h[arr.sample] += 1 }
#=> {"great"=>22, "good"=>29, "bad"=>21, "dull"=>28}

which is a bit more “self-contained”, and returns the hash itself instead of 100 like times does (though you could also use tap to get that effect).