Merge sort for an integer array in Ruby

Question

I've implemented merge sort an integer array. Should I change them to more meaningful names? Overall, any further suggestions on this code? I would like to improve my coding style and to shorten the code.

class MergeSortAlgorithm def sort(numbers) if numbers.size <= 1 return numbers end array_size = numbers.size half_of_size = (array_size / 2).round left_array = numbers.take(half_of_size) right_array = numbers.drop(half_of_size) sorted_left_array = sort(left_array) sorted_right_array = sort(right_array) merge(sorted_left_array, sorted_right_array) end def merge(left_array, right_array) if right_array.empty? return left_array end if left_array.empty? return right_array end smallest_number = if left_array.first <= right_array.first left_array.shift else right_array.shift end recursive = merge(left_array, right_array) [smallest_number].concat(recursive) end end merge_sort = MergeSortAlgorithm.new puts merge_sort.sort([4, 92, 1, 39, 19, 93, 49, 10].shuffle) 

Answer 1

First thing you can do is to improve your code layout, I recommend you use the code style that most rubyists use:

https://github.com/bbatsov/ruby-style-guide/blob/master/README.md#source-code-layout

The next best thing is to write some unit tests for your code, you can use the built in Minitest library, or you can try Rspec. You don't need complicated tests, just some assertions to make sure the sorting is indeed done correctly, which gives you freedom to refactor.

You can also use the ruby convention and change some of your if's in one liners.

return numbers if numbers.size <= 1 

Besides that, as long as the code works as expected, the names you choose are good, but depending on their taste, people will like it or not.