Feature #8422: add Enumerable#reverse_sort and Enumerable#reverse_sort_by

• Status: Feedback
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -

[Hanmac (Hans Mackowiak)]

they are better when you want descending order,
enum.sort.reverse
does work too, but it is to slow because it needs to build that result array twice

they both can be defined just like #sort and #sort_by but negates the result of the compare block

[matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)]

• Status changed from Open to Feedback

It can be done by a.sort{|a,b| b<=>a}. Do we really need to define new methods?

Matz.

[marcandre (Marc-Andre Lafortune)]

matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) wrote:

It can be done by a.sort{|a,b| b<=>a}.

That will typically be much slower though.

Currently, the best way to do a reverse sort, performance-wise, is a.sort.reverse!

For a random 100 number array, for example:

sort.reverse! is faster than sort.reverse by 10% ± 1.0%
sort.reverse is faster than sort_by by 6x ± 0.1
sort_by is faster than sort by 60% ± 1.0%

Code: https://gist.github.com/marcandre/5604592

-1, feature creep
But I'm for defining reverse! as O(1), not really reversing anything, just treating the last element as first and first as last. (I do not know how collections are exactly implemented, so I am not sure whether this is possible.)

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

How do you sort an infinite Enumerable?

ruby -rprime -e 'p Prime.each.reverse_sort.take 10'

[marcandre (Marc-Andre Lafortune)]

drbrain (Eric Hodel) wrote:

How do you sort an infinite Enumerable?

ruby -rprime -e 'p Prime.each.reverse_sort.take 10

I'm not sure what your point is. How is that different from p Prime.each.sort.take 10? Moreover, an alternative request could be to add Array#reverse_sort{_by}.

Maybe we should consider a variation on sort that allows multiple criteria and independent sort directions?

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

Neither Prime.each.reverse_sort.take 10 nor Prime.each.sort.take 10 will return as there is no last value for infinite streams. You can neither reverse nor sort an infinite stream.

I believe adding the feature to Enumerable doesn't fit with its existing functionality (all beginning-of-stream oriented).

We need feedback from the submitter. Without it this issue should be closed.

[marcandre (Marc-Andre Lafortune)]

drbrain (Eric Hodel) wrote:

Neither Prime.each.reverse_sort.take 10 nor Prime.each.sort.take 10 will return as there is no last value for infinite streams.

Of course. But you are aware that Enumerable has a sort method that acts as a shortcut to to_a.sort?

We need feedback from the submitter. Without it this issue should be closed.

The relevant question here is "should there be a dedicated way to do a reverse sort". The question of where that method should be (Array or Enumerable) is accessory.

[Hanmac (Hans Mackowiak)]

my idea would be this, for ruby it may be cood if its converted into C++ code

module Enumerable
  def reverse_sort(&block)
    block ||= proc {|x,y| x <=> y }
    sort {|x,y| - block.call(x,y)}
  end
 
  def reverse_sort_by
    return to_enum(__method__) unless block_given?
    sort_by{|x| - yield(x)}
  end
end