RSpec 1, RSpec 2
To test whether two arrays have the same elements regardless of order, RSpec 1 and 2 give you the =~ matcher:
actual_array.should =~ expected_array
Rspec 3
With RSpec 3's expect syntax you can choose one of these two matchers:
expect(actual_array).to match_array(['1', '2', '3'])
expect(actual_array).to contain_exactly('1', '2', '3')
Note how match_array takes an argument, but contain_exactly takes a list of elements as varargs.
Test::Unit
If you install shoulda-matchers Show archive.org snapshot you can say:
assert_same_elements([:a, :b, :c], [:c, :a, :b])
Pure Ruby
It's a little tricky to emulate this check in plain Ruby (outside of a spec). If you're OK with ignoring duplicate elements and your element classes implement
#hash
Show archive.org snapshot
correctly (e.g. Strings), you can say:
def same_elements?(array1, array2)
array1.to_set == array2.to_set
end
If duplicate elements matter (e.g. you consider [1,1,2] not to have the same elements as [1,2]), emulate
what RSpec does
Show archive.org snapshot
:
def difference_between_arrays(array1, array2)
difference = array1.dup
array2.each do |element|
if index = difference.index(element)
difference.delete_at(index)
end
end
difference
end
def same_elements?(array1, array2)
extra_items = difference_between_arrays(array1, array2)
missing_items = difference_between_arrays(array2, array1)
extra_items.empty? & missing_items.empty?
end
