Ruby Docs

v3.1.2
Array
flatten

How to use

Quick guide

Official content

Returns a new Array that is a recursive flattening of self:

Each non-Array element is unchanged.
Each Array is replaced by its individual elements.

With non-negative Integer argument level, flattens recursively through level levels:

a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(0) # => [0, [1, [2, 3], 4], 5]
a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(1) # => [0, 1, [2, 3], 4, 5]
a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(2) # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(3) # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

With no argument, a nil argument, or with negative argument level, flattens all levels:

a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[0, 1, 2].flatten # => [0, 1, 2]
a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(-1) # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
a = [ 0, [ 1, [2, 3], 4 ], 5 ]
a.flatten(-2) # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[0, 1, 2].flatten(-1) # => [0, 1, 2]

 
               static VALUE
rb_ary_flatten(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE ary)
{
    int level = -1;
    VALUE result;

    if (rb_check_arity(argc, 0, 1) && !NIL_P(argv[0])) {
        level = NUM2INT(argv[0]);
        if (level == 0) return ary_make_shared_copy(ary);
    }

    result = flatten(ary, level);
    if (result == ary) {
        result = ary_make_shared_copy(ary);
    }

    return result;
}

Was this page useful?