is_float

The is_float() function allows you to check if a particular variable is a float (type).

PHP

$number = 6.5;
var_dump( is_float($number) );
// => true

Ruby

number = 6.5;
puts number.is_a?(Float);
# => true

range

The range() function creates an array containing a range of elements in PHP, however in Ruby the Range object is used to handle ranges of integers or strings.

PHP

$chars = range('a', 'c');
print_r($chars);
// => array(0 => 'a', 1 => 'b', 2 => 'c')

Ruby

chars = 'a'..'c'
chars.each {|item| print "#{item}, " } 
# => a, b, c,

array_combine

The array_combine() function creates an associative array (hash) by using one array for keys and another for values.

PHP

$a = array('python', 'lisp', 'perl');
$b = array('PY', 'LI', 'PE');
$c = array_combine($a, $b);
 
print_r($c);
=> /* 
Array
(
    [python] => PY
    [lisp] => LI
    [perl] => PE
)
*/

To replicate this functionality in Ruby, we need to use a Hash object, since arrays in Ruby don’t use associative key/value pairs.

Since there is no exact equivalent of to the array_combine() function in Ruby, we manually create a hash from two different arrays.

Ruby

p1 = ['python', 'lisp', 'perl'];
p2 = ['PY', 'LI', 'PE'];
 
# initialize the hash
combined_hash = {}
 
# build the hash from 2 different arrays
p2.each_with_index do |val, key| 
  combined_hash[p1[key]] = val
end
 
# print resulting hash
p combined_hash
=> # ["python"=>"PY", "lisp"=>"LI", "perl"=>"PE"]

array_push

The array_push() function pushes elements onto the end of an array (acting in the opposite way to array_pop).

PHP

$programming = array('java', 'ruby', 'python', 'php');
array_push($programming, 'asp');
print_r($programming);
=> /* 
Array
(
    [0] => java
    [1] => ruby
    [2] => python
    [3] => php
    [4] => asp
)
*/

Ruby

programming = ['java', 'ruby', 'python', 'php'];
programming.push('asp');
=> # ["java", "ruby", "python", "php", "asp"]

array_pop

The array_pop() function removes the element off the end of an array and returns it’s value.

PHP

$my_array = array('java', 'ruby', 'python', 'php');
echo array_pop($my_array);
=> // php

Ruby

my_array = ['java', 'ruby', 'python', 'php'];
puts my_array.pop
=> # php

ucwords

The ucwords() function turns the first character of each word in a string to upper-case, if the first character is alphabetic.

PHP

echo ucwords("ruby is easy.");
=> // Ruby Is Easy.

Ruby doesn’t have a function which can capitalize all the words in a string - so to accomplish this it’s a little bit harder. You need to split the string into words, then capitalize the first character of each word, and then finally join all the words back into a string.

Ruby

puts "ruby is easy.".split(' ').select {|w| w.capitalize! || w }.join(' ');
=> # Ruby Is Easy.

lcfirst

The lcfirst() function returns a string, with the first character in lower case - only if the first character is alphabetic.

PHP

echo lcfirst("Java is OK.");
=> // java is OK.

Ruby

my_string = "Java is OK.";
 
puts my_string[0,1].downcase + my_string[1..-1];
=> # java is OK.

ucfirst

The ucfirst function returns a string, with the first character capitalized - only if the first character is alphabetic.

PHP

echo ucfirst("ruby is great!");
=> // Ruby is great!

Ruby

puts "ruby is great!".capitalize
=> # Ruby is great!

nl2br

The nl2br() function inserts HTML <br> tags before any new lines in a string.

PHP

echo nl2br("foo has a\n bar");
/* 
foo has a<br>
bar
*/

Ruby

p "foo has a\n bar".gsub("\n", "<br>\n")
# foo has a<br>
# bar

chop

The chop() function is only an alias of rtrim, which strips whitespace (or other characters) from the end of a string.

For further information about how chop() can be used, see rtrim().