In Ruby, you can sort an array in various ways, depending on your specific requirements. The primary method for sorting arrays is using the `.sort` method, which returns a new array with the elements sorted in ascending order. Here’s how you can use it:
```ruby numbers = [5, 2, 8, 1, 9] sorted_numbers = numbers.sort ```
After running this code, the `sorted_numbers` array will contain `[1, 2, 5, 8, 9]`, which is the sorted version of the `numbers` array.
If you need to sort the array in descending order, you can use the `.reverse` method to reverse the sorted array:
```ruby numbers = [5, 2, 8, 1, 9] sorted_numbers_descending = numbers.sort.reverse ```
Now, `sorted_numbers_descending` will be `[9, 8, 5, 2, 1]`.
Ruby’s `.sort` method is quite versatile and can handle arrays of various data types. However, if you need more control over the sorting process, you can use the `.sort_by` method with a block to specify a custom sorting criteria. For example, to sort an array of strings by their length in descending order:
```ruby
words = ["apple", "banana", "kiwi", "grape"]
sorted_words_by_length = words.sort_by { |word| -word.length }
``` In this case, `sorted_words_by_length` will contain `[“banana”, “apple”, “kiwi”, “grape”]`, sorted by length in descending order.
Sorting arrays is a common operation in programming, and Ruby provides a variety of methods and options to make it flexible and convenient for different scenarios.
