Set Class in Ruby

In Ruby, the Set class is a collection of unordered, unique values—kind of like an array, but with no duplicates allowed. It maintains unique elements only. Supports set operations: union, intersection, difference, etc. How to use: require "set" s = Set.new([1, 2, 3]) s.add(3) # duplicate, won't be added s.add(4) puts s.inspect # => # Set Operations: a = Set.new([1, 2, 3]) b = Set.new([3, 4, 5]) puts a | b # Union => # puts a & b # Intersection => # puts a - b # Difference => # Conversion: arr = [1, 2, 2, 3] unique_set = Set.new(arr) puts unique_set.to_a # => [1, 2, 3] When to Use Set: When you need to automatically eliminate duplicates. When performing set-theoretic operations (like unions or intersections). For efficient membership checks (similar to using a hash).

May 2, 2025 - 22:34

In Ruby, the Set class is a collection of unordered, unique values—kind of like an array, but with no duplicates allowed. It maintains unique elements only. Supports set operations: union, intersection, difference, etc.

How to use:

require "set"

s = Set.new([1, 2, 3])
s.add(3)      # duplicate, won't be added
s.add(4)
puts s.inspect  # => #

Set Operations:

a = Set.new([1, 2, 3])
b = Set.new([3, 4, 5])

puts a | b     # Union => #
puts a & b     # Intersection => #
puts a - b     # Difference => #

Conversion:

arr = [1, 2, 2, 3]
unique_set = Set.new(arr)
puts unique_set.to_a  # => [1, 2, 3]

When to Use Set:

When you need to automatically eliminate duplicates.
When performing set-theoretic operations (like unions or intersections).
For efficient membership checks (similar to using a hash).