each and collect Keywords in Ruby

1. Use each in the Array in Ruby
2. Use collect in the Array in Ruby

You may be looking for the shortest way to operate on each element of an array. You can design a for loop, go through all the array elements one by one, and perform the action.

But there is the easiest way available in Ruby. You can use either each or collect for this purpose.

In this article, we will discuss the use of each and collect in Ruby. Also, we will see some examples relevant to the topic to make it easier.

each and collect are two built-in keywords in Ruby that allow you to perform an action on each array element.

Use each in the Array in Ruby

In our example below, we will see the use of each in an array. Let’s take the below example from our discussion.

array = [1, 2, 3, 4]
array.each { |x| puts x * 2 }

In the above example, we multiplied each array element by 2 and showed the result. We used each for this purpose.

After running the above example code, you will get the below output.

2
4
6
8

Use collect in the Array in Ruby

In our example below, we will demonstrate the use of collect in an array. Let’s take the below example in our discussion.

array = [1, 2, 3, 4]
puts(array.collect { |x| x * 2 })

In the above example, we multiplied each array element by 2 and showed the result. We used collect for this purpose.

After running the above example code, you will get the below output.

2
4
6
8

Though the collect and each work similarly, they have their own differences. The major difference between the each and collect is each loops over the items and performs actions, but it doesn’t affect the array or create a new object where the collect applies a specific block of code to all the items and return a new version of the array.