I have an array word_array, and I'd like to add all the words of sentences to it. For example:
word_array = []
sentence_1 = "my first sentence"
sentence_2 = "my second sentence"
and then have:
word_array = ["my", "first", "sentence", "my", "second", "sentence"]
If I use split():
word_array << sentence_1.split
word_array << sentence_2.split
I get:
word_array = [["my", "first", "sentence"], ["my", "second", "sentence"]]
How can I avoid having a 2D array here?
Use concat.
word_array.concat(sentence_1.split)
word_array.concat(sentence_2.split)
It is more efficient than using +, which makes a new array.
One way is to use += to append the elements to the end of word_array every time:
word_array += sentence_1.split
# => ["my", "first", "sentence"]
word_array += sentence_2.split
# => ["my", "first", "sentence", "my", "second", "sentence"]
Just use sentence_1.split + sentence_2.split
I think you may confuse + and << for array. + is to merge arrays, << takes the argument as the array's element.
It is likely that you may have more than one sentences, and you may be getting it in the form of array. Below solution will be apt in that case, as well as if you had only couple of sentences.
sentence_1 = "my first sentence"
sentence_2 = "my second sentence"
ary = [sentence_1, sentence_2]
words = ary.flat_map {|s| s.split}
#=> ["my", "first", "sentence", "my", "second", "sentence"]
inject or each_object would be more efficient. But your answer may be conceptually simpler. And is symbol-to-proc attracting you?
flatten on split result.flatten is a bad idea in this case.