Question

Whats the best way in Ruby to do something like my_array.select(n){ |elem| ... }, where the n means “I only want n elements returned, and stop evaluating after that number is reached”?

Answer 1

Looks like there’s no avoiding a traditional loop if you’re using stock 1.8.7 or 1.9.2…

result = []
num_want = 4
i = 0
while (elem = my_array[i]) && my_array.length < num_want
  result << elem if elem.some_condition
  i += 1
end