cycle

Creates a Cycle object whose to_s method cycles through elements of an array every time it is called. This can be used for example, to alternate classes for table rows. You can use named cycles to allow nesting in loops. Passing a Hash as the last parameter with a :name key will create a named cycle. The default name for a cycle without a :name key is "default". You can manually reset a cycle by calling reset_cycle and passing the name of the cycle. The current cycle string can be obtained anytime using the current_cycle method.

 <%# Alternate CSS classes for even and odd numbers... %>
 <% @items = [1,2,3,4] %>
 <table>
 <% @items.each do |item| %>
   <tr class="<%= cycle("odd", "even") -%>">
     <td><%= item %></td>
   </tr>
 <% end %>
 </table>

 <%# Cycle CSS classes for rows, and text colors for values within each row %>
 <% @items = [
   { first: "Robert", middle: "Daniel", last: "James" },
   { first: "Emily", middle: "Shannon", maiden: "Pike", last: "Hicks" },
   { first: "June", middle: "Dae", last: "Jones" },
 ] %>
 <% @items.each do |item| %>
   <tr class="<%= cycle("odd", "even", name: "row_class") -%>">
     <td>
       <% item.values.each do |value| %>
         <%# Create a named cycle "colors" %>
         <span style="color:<%= cycle("red", "green", "blue", name: "colors") -%>">
           <%= value %>
         </span>
       <% end %>
       <% reset_cycle("colors") %>
     </td>
  </tr>
<% end %>