Ruby split array into X groups

Question

I need to split an array into X smaller array. I don't care about the number of elements in the smaller arrays I just need to create X arrays from a larger one. I've been doing some reading and it seems like I need a method similar to the in_groups method from rails. I am not using rails right now, just ruby.

Answer 1

Requiring Rails just to get that function is overkill. Just use each_slice:

team = ['alice', 'andy', 'bob', 'barry', 'chloe', 'charlie']
=> ["alice", "andy", "bob", "barry", "chloe", "charlie"]

team.each_slice(2).to_a
=> [["alice", "andy"], ["bob", "barry"], ["chloe", "charlie"]]

each_slice's parameter is the number of elements in each slice (except possibly the last slice). Since you're looking for X slices, you can do something like this:

team.each_slice(team.length/X).to_a

That's not perfect, as you'll get one extra slice if the array length is not a multiple of X, but gets you in the ballpark and you can tweak it from there depending on what exactly your needs are.

Since you say you don't care how many are in each, you could just use the length/x approach above, then check to see if you have one too many slices. If so, just join the last two slices into one jumbo-size slice. This might avoid some fussy math or floating point operations.