The Comparable mixin is used by classes whose objects may be ordered. The class must define the <=> operator, which compares the receiver against another object, returning -1, 0, or +1 depending on whether the receiver is less than, equal to, or greater than the other object. Comparable uses <=> to implement the conventional comparison operators (<, <=, ==, >=, and >) and the method between?.
class SizeMatters include Comparable attr :str def <=>(anOther) str.size <=> anOther.str.size end def initialize(str) @str = str end def inspect @str end end s1 = SizeMatters.new("Z") s2 = SizeMatters.new("YY") s3 = SizeMatters.new("XXX") s4 = SizeMatters.new("WWWW") s5 = SizeMatters.new("VVVVV") s1 < s2 #=> true s4.between?(s1, s3) #=> false s4.between?(s3, s5) #=> true [ s3, s2, s5, s4, s1 ].sort #=> [Z, YY, XXX, WWWW, VVVVV]
| Public Methods | |
|---|---|
| < | Compares two objects based on the receiver’s <=> method, returning true if it returns -1. |
| <= | Compares two objects based on the receiver’s <=> method, returning true if it returns -1 or 0. |
| == | Compares two objects based on the receiver’s <=> method, returning true if it returns 0. Also returns true if obj and other are the same object. |
| > | Compares two objects based on the receiver’s <=> method, returning true if it returns 1. |
| >= | Compares two objects based on the receiver’s <=> method, returning true if it returns 0 or 1. |
| between? | Returns false if obj <=> min is less than zero or if anObject <=> max is greater than zero, true otherwise. |
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