Method: Object#to_enum

Defined in:
enumerator.c

#to_enum(method = :each, *args) ⇒ Enumerator #enum_for(method = :each, *args) ⇒ Enumerator #to_enum(method = :each, *args) {|*args| ... } ⇒ Enumerator #enum_for(method = :each, *args) {|*args| ... } ⇒ Enumerator

Creates a new Enumerator which will enumerate by calling method on obj, passing args if any. What was yielded by method becomes values of enumerator.

If a block is given, it will be used to calculate the size of the enumerator without the need to iterate it (see Enumerator#size).

Examples

str = "xyz"

enum = str.enum_for(:each_byte)
enum.each { |b| puts b }
# => 120
# => 121
# => 122

# protect an array from being modified by some_method
a = [1, 2, 3]
some_method(a.to_enum)

# String#split in block form is more memory-effective:
very_large_string.split("|") { |chunk| return chunk if chunk.include?('DATE') }
# This could be rewritten more idiomatically with to_enum:
very_large_string.to_enum(:split, "|").lazy.grep(/DATE/).first

It is typical to call to_enum when defining methods for a generic Enumerable, in case no block is passed.

Here is such an example, with parameter passing and a sizing block:

module Enumerable
  # a generic method to repeat the values of any enumerable
  def repeat(n)
    raise ArgumentError, "#{n} is negative!" if n < 0
    unless block_given?
      return to_enum(__method__, n) do # __method__ is :repeat here
        sz = size     # Call size and multiply by n...
        sz * n if sz  # but return nil if size itself is nil
      end
    end
    each do |*val|
      n.times { yield *val }
    end
  end
end

%i[hello world].repeat(2) { |w| puts w }
  # => Prints 'hello', 'hello', 'world', 'world'
enum = (1..14).repeat(3)
  # => returns an Enumerator when called without a block
enum.first(4) # => [1, 1, 1, 2]
enum.size # => 42

Overloads:



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# File 'enumerator.c', line 368

static VALUE
obj_to_enum(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
{
    VALUE enumerator, meth = sym_each;

    if (argc > 0) {
	--argc;
	meth = *argv++;
    }
    enumerator = rb_enumeratorize_with_size(obj, meth, argc, argv, 0);
    if (rb_block_given_p()) {
	enumerator_ptr(enumerator)->size = rb_block_proc();
    }
    return enumerator;
}