Ruby Equivalent to Python's Help()

Ruby equivalent to Python's help()?

It's definitely a poor cousin to iPython's help, and one of the main features I miss after moving to Ruby, but you can also use ri from within irb. I'd recommend the wirble gem as an easy way to set this up.

Ruby equivalent of Python's `repr()`?

Based on the helpful comments from jeremy04 and Jörg W Mittag, I realize that there is nothing in Ruby which corresponds to repr, and that I can't make use of a simple repr-like method in all class instances without monkey-patching class Object itself. However, I realize that if I just make repr a standalone function, I can get the same functionality without monkey-patching and by doing repr(obj) instead of obj.repr whenever I want this info for a given object. The following stand-alone function works ...

def repr(obj)
  attrhash = {}
  obj.instance_variables.sort.each {
    |v|
    attrhash[v] = instance_variable_get(v)
  }
  {
    :string     => obj.inspect,
    :methods    => obj.class.instance_methods.sort,
    :attributes => attrhash
  }
end

I have this function return a hash instead of a string so that I can do things like this:

repr(obj)[:attributes].

I can always do repr(obj).to_s if I want a string.

Also, I could make this into a class. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. :)

Python's equivalent of Ruby's ||=

I think there is some confusion from the people who aren't really sure what the conditional assignment operator (||=) does, and also some misunderstanding about how variables are spawned in Ruby.

Everyone should read this article on the subject. A TLDR quote:

A common misconception is that a ||= b is equivalent to a = a || b, but it behaves like a || a = b

In a = a || b, a is set to something by the statement on every run, whereas with a || a = b, a is only set if a is logically false (i.e. if it's nil or false) because || is 'short circuiting'. That is, if the left hand side of the || comparison is true, there's no need to check the right hand side.

And another very important note:

...a variable assignment, even if not run, immediately summons that variable into being.

# Ruby
x = 10 if 2 == 5
puts x

Even though the first line won't be run, x will exist on the second line and no exception will be raised.

This means that Ruby will absolutely ensure that there is a variable container for a value to be placed into before any righthand conditionals take place. ||= doesn't assign if a is not defined, it assigns if a is falsy (again, false or nil - nil being the default nothingness value in Ruby), whilst guaranteeing a is defined.

What does this mean for Python?

Well, if a is defined, the following:

# Ruby
a ||= 10

is actually equivalent to:

# Python
if not a:
    a = 10

while the following:

# Either language
a = a or 10

is close, but it always assigns a value, whereas the previous examples do not.

And if a is not defined the whole operation is closer to:

# Python
a = None
if not a:
    a = 10

Because a very explicit example of what a ||= 10 does when a is not defined would be:

# Ruby
if not defined? a
    a = nil
end

if not a
    a = 10
end

At the end of the day, the ||= operator is not completely translatable to Python in any kind of 'Pythonic' way, because of how it relies on the underlying variable spawning in Ruby.

Does Ruby have a dir method, similar to Python?

There is fairly popular gem pry, which has method called ls that can provide you I believe with something, similar to the dir in Python.

Ruby equivalent to Python __main__

I believe this will work:

if __FILE__ == $0
    tell_the_truth()
end

What does Ruby have that Python doesn't, and vice versa?

You can have code in the class definition in both Ruby and Python. However, in Ruby you have a reference to the class (self). In Python you don't have a reference to the class, as the class isn't defined yet.

An example:

class Kaka
  puts self
end

self in this case is the class, and this code would print out "Kaka". There is no way to print out the class name or in other ways access the class from the class definition body in Python.

Python equivalent of Ruby's .find

Below code in python for your ruby logic.

CF={"metre":{"kilometre":0.001, "metre":1.0, "centimetre":100.0}, "litre":{"litre":1.0, "millilitre":1000.0, "imperial_pint":1.75975}}

def common(fr,to):
    for key,value in CF.items():
        if (fr in value) and (to in value):
            return key   

print(common('metre','centimdetre'))
metre
print(com('metre','centimdetre'))
None
******************

single line function 
com = lambda x,y:[key for key,value in CF.items() if (x in value) and (y in value)]
print(com('metre','centimdetre'))
['metre']

From Ruby to Python - Is there an equivalent of try?

Dictionaries: dict.get

You can use dict.get:

d = {'foo' : 'bar'}

print(d.get('foo'))
'bar'

print(d.get('xxxxx'))
None

You can also pass a default parameter to get:

print(d.get('xxxxx', 'Invalid Key!'))
Invalid Key!

The default value is printed out when the key does not exist in the dictionary.

---

Lists: custom try-except block

Unfortunately, lists do not have a dict.get equivalent in their API, so you'll need to implement one yourself. Thankfully, you can extend the list class and override __getitem__ to do this cleanly.

class MyList(list):
    def __getitem__(self, idx, default='oops'):
        try:
            return super().__getitem__(idx)
        except IndexError:
            return default

l = MyList([10, 20])

l[1]
# 20

l[3]
# 'oops'

      

Python's equivalent for Ruby's define_method?

Functions are first-class objects in Python and can be assigned to attributes of a class or an instance. One way to do the same thing as in the Wikipedia example is:

colours = {"black": "000",
           "red": "f00",
           "green": "0f0",
           "yellow": "ff0",
           "blue": "00f",
           "magenta": "f0f",
           "cyan": "0ff",
           "white": "fff"}

class MyString(str):
    pass

for name, code in colours.iteritems():
    def _in_colour(self, code=code):
        return '<span style="color: %s">%s</span>' % (code, self)
    setattr(MyString, "in_" + name, _in_colour)

---

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