Question

Whenever I see Ruby code that says:

arrayNames.collect { ... }

I forget what collect is and have to look up what it is, and find that it is the same as map().

Map, I can understand, mapping 1 byte to a pixel, and function is to map an x to a y, a 2 to a 4, a 5 to a 25, etc. But where does the name “collect” come from? Maybe that will help to remember what a “collect” method is.

Answer 1

To add to the other answers, it is kind of an inside-joke in Smalltalk:

• inject:into:
• collect:
• select:
• reject:
• detect:

Spot the pattern?