Set vs Array , difference

Question

What is the difference between Set and Array in Ruby except for the fact that sets keep unique elements while arrays can keep duplicate elements?

Answer 1

They are very different.

Array

• An array is an ordered list of objects.
• An array value can be accessed by referencing its integer position in the list (zero-indexed): a[3] references the 4th object in the array.
• There is no restriction on what the values can be—duplicate values are allowed in arrays.
• An array has an object literal notation: [1, 'apple', String, 1, :banana] (this creates and initializes a new Array).
• Arrays are built in to the core ruby library.

Set

• A set is an unordered pool of unique objects.
• Since it's unordered, there is no integer index you can use to access specific elements of a set.
• The uniqueness restriction means you can't have more than one copy of a value in the set.
• Set is not part of the core, but part of the standard library, and thus needs a require 'set'.
• Before Ruby 2.4, there was no object literal notation for sets, you had to create them via Set.new.
  • For Ruby >= 2.4.0 you can use Set[] (e.g. Set[1,2,3])

Answer 2

For me the main difference is that Sets are implemented as hashes, so you have O(1) membership tests for elements.