# My map vs. collect bone **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [2 August 2005 15:06 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898 "2005-08-02T15:06:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![7rans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/a8b319/32.png) [@7rans](https://rubytalk.org/u/7rans)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 15:06 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/1 "2005-08-02T15:06:04Z")
I have a bone to pick. I tire of accounting for both method terms 'map' and 'collect'. Anytime I create a method like #collect\_with\_counter I feel obliged to create an alias #map\_with\_counter. And at this point my collection of useful methods has a pretty good number of them. So my feeling incerading become "This town's just not big enough for the both of 'em". Besides its a waste of useful semanitic space. Now when it comes to choosing between the two, I'm go for 'collect' because its meaning is clearer to me even though its not as concise. To me 'map' indicates 'hash' and its a strech to think of the resulting array as a map. I suppose 'map' indicates that an input element coorepsonds a resulting output element --but still that's weak. Lots of things fit that description, like methods. I suspect it was really just borrowed from lisp. Anyhow I digress. The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care which. Just pick one. T. ---
**Author:** ![Berger\_Daniel1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecc23a/32.png) [@Berger\_Daniel1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Berger_Daniel1)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 15:11 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/2 "2005-08-02T15:11:40Z")
Trans wrote: > I have a bone to pick. I tire of accounting for both method terms 'map' > and 'collect'. Anytime I create a method like #collect\_with\_counter I > feel obliged to create an alias #map\_with\_counter. And at this point my > collection of useful methods has a pretty good number of them. So my > feeling incerading become "This town's just not big enough for the both > of 'em". Besides its a waste of useful semanitic space. That's a YP, not an MP. The same could be said of all aliases. > Now when it comes to choosing between the two, I'm go for 'collect' > because its meaning is clearer to me even though its not as concise. > To me 'map' indicates 'hash' and its a strech to think of the resulting > array as a map. I suppose 'map' indicates that an input element > coorepsonds a resulting output element --but still that's weak. Lots of > things fit that description, like methods. I suspect it was really just > borrowed from lisp. Anyhow I digress. I prefer "map" for two reasons. First, I come from a Perl background, which uses map, so it's familiar. Second, there's no "collecting" going on. The most typical use for map is to alter each of the elements in some way, i.e. to "map them to another value". > The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future > version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care > which. Just pick one. > > T. Extremely unlikely. Code breakage everywhere. Regards, Dan ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Neukirche1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Christian\_Neukirche1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Christian_Neukirche1)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 15:41 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/3 "2005-08-02T15:41:09Z")
"Trans" \ writes: > The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future > version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care > which. Just pick one. I prefer #map because I do more Lisp than Smalltalk. 馃檪 > **路路路** > > > T. > > -- > Christian Neukirchen \ [http://chneukirchen.org](http://chneukirchen.org) ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Schroder1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Brian\_Schroder1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Brian_Schroder1)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 16:12 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/4 "2005-08-02T16:12:55Z")
I never use collect, because collect would seem more like select or inject to me, while map makes it clear that the elements are mapped onto other elements. (Not so clear in general maybe, but clear enough to me 馃槈 regards, Brian > **路路路** > > On 02/08/05, Trans \ wrote: > > > I have a bone to pick. I tire of accounting for both method terms 'map' > > and 'collect'. Anytime I create a method like #collect\_with\_counter I > > feel obliged to create an alias #map\_with\_counter. And at this point my > > collection of useful methods has a pretty good number of them. So my > > feeling incerading become "This town's just not big enough for the both > > of 'em". Besides its a waste of useful semanitic space. > > > > Now when it comes to choosing between the two, I'm go for 'collect' > > because its meaning is clearer to me even though its not as concise. > > To me 'map' indicates 'hash' and its a strech to think of the resulting > > array as a map. I suppose 'map' indicates that an input element > > coorepsonds a resulting output element --but still that's weak. Lots of > > things fit that description, like methods. I suspect it was really just > > borrowed from lisp. Anyhow I digress. > > > > The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future > > version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care > > which. Just pick one. > > > > T. > > -- > [http://ruby.brian-schroeder.de/](http://ruby.brian-schroeder.de/) > > Stringed instrument chords: [http://chordlist.brian-schroeder.de/](http://chordlist.brian-schroeder.de/) ---
**Author:** ![David\_A\_Black3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6a8cbe/32.png) [@David\_A\_Black3](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_A_Black3)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 16:19 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/5 "2005-08-02T16:19:46Z")
Hi -- > **路路路** > > On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Christian Neukirchen wrote: > > > "Trans" \ writes: > > > > > The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future > > > version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care > > > which. Just pick one. > > > > I prefer #map because I do more Lisp than Smalltalk. 馃檪 > > I prefer to keep both because I do more Ruby than Lisp or Smalltalk > 馃檪 > > David > > -- > David A. Black > dblack@wobblini.net ---
**Author:** ![7rans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/a8b319/32.png) [@7rans](https://rubytalk.org/u/7rans)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 16:21 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/6 "2005-08-02T16:21:06Z")
Daniel Berger wrote: > Trans wrote: > That's a YP, not an MP. The same could be said of all aliases. Perhaps. But this term particularly so b/c of it's frequent usage in similar methods. > I prefer "map" for two reasons. First, I come from a Perl background, > which uses map, so it's familiar. Second, there's no "collecting" going > on. Sure there is: the resulting values are returned in a \_collection\_ i.e. an array. > The most typical use for map is to alter each of the elements in > some way, i.e. to "map them to another value". Understandable reasoning. I think really it's largely a subjective matter. So liek I said I don't care either way, I just wish there were only one. It's not a big deal of course, it's just that it has crossed my mind so many times now that I had to put the bone on the table 馃檪 > Extremely unlikely. Code breakage everywhere. Thankfully we have the safely slow process of deprecation. T. P.S. I was checking out your latest blog post. Wanted to comment but couldn't b/c I'm not OpenID'd. Does anyone know of any free OpenID services? (I thought about signing up w/ LiveJournal but I alreay have a blog.) T. ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Fernie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Patrick\_Fernie](https://rubytalk.org/u/Patrick_Fernie)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 16:40 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/7 "2005-08-02T16:40:08Z")
Regardless of the fact I like #map more than #collect, here's my thought on maintaing both map\_ and collect\_: why not use a little meta-programming? I'm not at my dev machine atm, so no ruby, but generally: module Enumerable   def Enumerable.method\_added(meth)     if meth.to\_s =~ /^collect\_/       alias\_method meth.to\_s.sub(/^collect/, 'map').to\_sym, meth     end   end end module Enumerable   def collect\_test     puts "This is the new method"   end end a = a.collect\_test #=\> "This is the new method" a.map\_test #=\> "This is the new method" Or, you could use method\_missing, which will help when defining methods in classes including the module (the above case only works for methods defined in the Enumerable module, I believe (away from Ruby atm, so correct me if I'm wrong)): module Enumerable   def method\_missing(meth, \*args)     if meth.to\_s =~ /^map\_/       self.send(meth.to\_s.sub(/^map/, 'collect').to\_sym, \*args)     else       NoMethodError.new(meth.to\_s)     end   end end class Array   def collect\_another(str)     puts "Another: #{str}"   end end a = a.collect\_another("yep!") #=\> "Another: yep!" a.map\_another("also yep!") #=\> "Another: also yep!" I like this method less because then map\_\ doesn't show up in documentation and when looking into the object. Also, it seems gragile to me; somebody who knows more will probably correct me ;). -P > **路路路** > > On 8/2/05, David A. Black \ wrote: > > > Hi -- > > > > On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Christian Neukirchen wrote: > > > > \> "Trans" \ writes: > > \> > > \>\> The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future > > \>\> version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care > > \>\> which. Just pick one. > > \> > > \> I prefer #map because I do more Lisp than Smalltalk. 馃檪 > > > > I prefer to keep both because I do more Ruby than Lisp or Smalltalk > > 馃檪 > > > > David > > > > -- > > David A. Black > > dblack@wobblini.net ---
**Author:** ![7rans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/a8b319/32.png) [@7rans](https://rubytalk.org/u/7rans)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2005 20:21 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/8 "2005-08-02T20:21:04Z")
He he. It's amazing what Ruby can do, ain't it Patrick? T. ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_Sanderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Adam\_Sanderson](https://rubytalk.org/u/Adam_Sanderson)\ **Post date:** [3 August 2005 17:06 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/my-map-vs-collect-bone/19898/9 "2005-08-03T17:06:06Z")
I keep reading these ruby posts and smiling, I love this stuff. It would be nice to start a collection of these sorts of rubycentric solutions to problems. I know I'm still in a very rigid C++/Java mindset when I'm writing code.   .adam