What is array.delete() in Ruby?

The delete() method of the Array class in Ruby deletes a specified element from an Array instance.

The figure below illustrates how the delete() method works:

Figure 1: element "a" deleted from array

Syntax

array.delete(element)
// where array is any Array instance

Parameters

element: The element or elements to delete.

Return value

  • The delete() method returns the deleted item or the last deleted item if there is more than one item to delete.

  • If no matching item is found, then it returns nil.

Code

In the code below, several arrays are deleted with the delete() method and the returned values are printed to the console.

# create arrays
languagesArray = ["Java", "C++", "Python", "Javascript", "Ruby on Rails!" ]
numbersArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
alphabetsArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
# delete elements in arrays
a = languagesArray.delete("Java")
b = numbersArray.delete(3)
c = alphabetsArray.delete("b")
# print returned values
puts "Deleted elements are: \n"
puts a
puts b
puts c
# print orginal arrays
puts "Arrays after deletions are: \n"
puts "#{languagesArray}"
puts "#{numbersArray}"
puts "#{alphabetsArray}"

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