Ruby: Maximizing the Usage of the Enumerable Module for Better Code Efficiency [Part I]


Greeting

Hey guys, how've you been? It's AC, Alexandre Calaça here. I'm so excited that you landed here. Hope you enjoy this new article.

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Introduction

This article Ruby: Maximizing the Usage of the Enumerable Module for Better Code Efficiency [Part I] provides an introduction to the Enumerable module.

Here, we're going to learn when the mentioned module was introduced to Ruby, how it works as a module and its basic characteristics.

Part II is going to provide new details about the Enumerable module. In case you want to check Part II, you click on the following link: Click here later (Article in progress).


Enumerable Module

This module provides a set of methods that can be used to iterate over the elements of a collection and perform various operations on them. This collection needs to be an enumerable object.

Let's dive it deeper.


Collections

In programming, a collection refers to a data structure that stores a group of related elements. Collections are used to organize and manage data in a way that makes it easy to access and manipulate.

A famous collection type among several programming languages is Arrays.

In Ruby, some examples of built-in collections include arrays, hashes, sets, and ranges. Briefly, Arrays are ordered collections of elements, while hashes are unordered collections of key-value pairs. Sets are collections of unique elements, and ranges are sequences of numbers or characters.

The Enumerable module is specialist in this area.


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Creation in Ruby

The Enumerable module has been a part of Ruby since its early versions. It was first introduced in Ruby 1.8, released in 2003. However, the module has undergone several changes and enhancements over the years in different Ruby versions.


Module

In Ruby, a module is a container that holds a set of methods, constants, and other module and class definitions. Modules provide a way to group similar functionality into a single namespace, making it easier to organize and reuse code.

It looks like a class, but it's not a class. Just to provide an example, a class can be instantiated and modules cannot.

Modules are vastly used in Ruby and they are demanded in these two main ways: As a namespace and as a mixin.

  • As a namespace:
    A namespace is usually used in two different ways: One way is to group related methods and constants, the second way is to separate our code into different files and directories.

    You can define a module to group related methods and constants together, and then use that module as a namespace to prevent naming conflicts. For example, you might define a Math module to hold math-related methods and constants, or a Utils module to hold utility methods.

    Another way is to organize our code into different files and directories, we can keep our codebase more organized and easier to maintain. This is an interesting example when it comes to building APIs, since it's interesting to create different versions for APIs.

  • As a mixin:
    Mixin is a powerful Ruby feature that gives the class access to the methods and constants defined in a specific module.

    This allows you to add behavior to a class without using inheritance or having to define it all in the class itself.

    Besides, since Ruby does not support multiple inheritances, the use of mixins is a catch since it is possible to reuse a bunch of different methods and modules.

    For example, you might define a Enumerable module with methods for iterating over collections, and then mix it into a class like Array to give that class the ability to iterate over its elements.


Instantiation

Modules cannot be instantiated and Enumerable is a module.

You'll get an error if you try to instantiate an Enumerable module.

In Rails console, take a look

[47] pry(main)> Enumerable.new
NoMethodError: undefined method `new' for Enumerable:Module

It is not possible to instantiate an Enumerable module directly, since Enumerable is a module and not a class. However, you can include the Enumerable module in your own classes to gain access to the methods it defines.

In the next article, we're going to see how the Enumerable module is "instantiated".


Summary

In this article, we learned how to use the Enumerable modulein Ruby.

This article Ruby: Maximizing the Usage of the Enumerable Module for Better Code Efficiency [Part I] provided an introduction to the Enumerable module.

We learned that Enumerable was introduced in Ruby 1.8, released in 2003. Besides, it is a module, so, it cannot be instantiated.

The Enumerable module is a specialist in collections, such as arrays and hashes.

Part II is going to provide new details about the Enumerable module. In case you want to check Part II, you click on the following link: Click here later (Article in progress).


Celebrate

If you read the article, right on! you did a great job. You can celebrate for sure!


Conclusion

That's all for today. Thanks for reading the article Maximizing the Usage of the Enumerable Module for Better Code Efficiency [Part I]

I hope this article helped you. Let me know if you have any questions.

Your thoughts, suggestions and corrections are more than welcome.

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Hope to see you next time.