Background
In my use case, I wanted to pass an array of fields into the .pluck
operator for a query, but the pluck operator doesn't take in arrays. Obviously, the solution here is to destructure the array. Were it JS I probably would have just written .pluck(...pluck_fields)
and moved on with my life. But funny enough, I have never had to destructure an array within function arguments. So I asked my supervisor and they told me to check the splat operator.
Splat Operator (* & **)
According to this article by Starr Horne, **They (splat operators) let you pass an array into a function expecting multiple arguments. The first item in the array becomes the first argument, the second item becomes the second argument and so on.*
Splat operator is more commonly used in function definition when the number of arguments is not known before hand, for instance:
def fun(*args)
p args
end
But in my use case, I want to focus on the first definition I mentioned, they can be used to pass an array into a function expecting multiple arguments. This directly solves my problem, where now i can pass an array of fields I want plucked to the pluck function,
.pluck(*pluck_fields)
There is a lot more to explain about the splat operator and how it can also destructure Hashes as well, but that is beyond the scope of this post for now. ( This Post also explains it better )
SPLAT!!!!
Top comments (3)
;)
This is definitely one of those operators you learn about and then suddenly realise how much easier it makes life.
Lol, love the cover image ya chose here!