Range

A Range represents an interval—a set of values with a start and an end. Ranges may be constructed using the s..e and s…e literals, or with Range::new. Ranges constructed using .. run from the start to the end inclusively. Those created using … exclude the end value. When used as an iterator, ranges return each value in the sequence.

(-1..-5).to_a      #=> []
(-5..-1).to_a      #=> [-5, -4, -3, -2, -1]
('a'..'e').to_a    #=> ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
('a'...'e').to_a   #=> ["a", "b", "c", "d"]

Ranges can be constructed using objects of any type, as long as the objects can be compared using their <=> operator and they support the succ method to return the next object in sequence.

class Xs                # represent a string of 'x's
  include Comparable
  attr :length
  def initialize(n)
    @length = n
  end
  def succ
    Xs.new(@length + 1)
  end
  def <=>(other)
    @length <=> other.length
  end
  def to_s
    sprintf "%2d #{inspect}", @length
  end
  def inspect
    'x' * @length
  end
end

r = Xs.new(3)..Xs.new(6)   #=> xxx..xxxxxx
r.to_a                     #=> [xxx, xxxx, xxxxx, xxxxxx]
r.member?(Xs.new(5))       #=> true

In the previous code example, class Xs includes the Comparable module. This is because Enumerable#member? checks for equality using

. Including Comparable ensures that the

method is defined in terms of the <=>

method implemented in Xs.