Ruby: inject

Oldie but I enjoy this post on Ruby's inject method

I find the inject solution less readable than something like: a = [1,2,3,4,5,6].map{|x| x.to_s if 0 == x % 2}.compact or a = [1,2,3,4,5,6].find_all{|x| 0 == x % 2}.map{|x| x.to_s} One of the aesthetic issues I have with inject is the requirement that the value the block returns becomes the result value for the next iteration. This is great when working with operations like addition, but the return value of hash assignment or pushing a value on an Array is nil. So in order to get inject to work you need that very unsightly return value line. I understand why it's like that, but I think it makes a strong case for using inject when the goal is to turn a set of something into a single something and for using set methods like map and select when transforming a set into another set.

Full article: http://blog.jayfields.com/2008/03/ruby-inject.html