Ruby (Rails): remove whitespace from each array item

Question

I found this code:

.each_key {|a| self[a].strip! if self[a].respond_to? :strip! } 

...but it is for a hash, whereas I am trying to do the same with an array.

Answer 1

This is what collect is for.

The following handles nil elements by leaving them alone:

yourArray.collect{ |e| e ? e.strip : e } 

If there are no nil elements, you may use:

yourArray.collect(&:strip) 

...which is short for:

yourArray.collect { |e| e.strip } 

strip! behaves similarly, but it converts already "stripped" strings to nil:

[' a', ' b ', 'c ', 'd'].collect(&:strip!) => ["a", "b", "c", nil] 

https://ruby-doc.org/core/Array.html#method-i-collect

https://ruby-doc.org/core/String.html#method-i-strip

Answer 2

If you don't mind first removing nil elements:

YourArray.compact.collect(&:strip)  

https://ruby-doc.org/core/Array.html#method-i-compact