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Let's say I have the following array:

array = ["a","a","a","a","a","a","b","b","b","b","b","b"]

I want to find the index of the first "b" in the array. What is the best way of doing it?

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    What is the reason for down voting? Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 19:26
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    Because you could have found this by reading the docs, or via Google, I'd imagine. Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 20:49
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    I did read some doc on google. The scenario I am asking is a tricky one. Most of the examples online are without duplicated elements which is why I am posting my question here. Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 22:35
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    It's not tricky at all, index will find the first "b" without trouble: 'aabb'.index('b') => 2. Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 6:27
  • Sorry I still couldn't accept this question as a duplicate. Existing questions are always under the case WITHOUT duplicated elements. It is only not tricky if you already know the answer. Commented Aug 19, 2016 at 21:21

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Use Array#index for first occurrence and Array#rindex for last occurrence of an element.

array = ["a","a","a","a","a","a","b","b","b","b","b","b"]
array.index("b") # => 6
array.rindex("b") # => 11
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3 Comments

+1 I guess it's hard to beat that simplicity :)
@JoachimIsaksson could you look into my answer - stackoverflow.com/questions/17174644/…. I am thinking it can be made more simplistic,but I can't. so any help or advice from you.
Very interesting, I didn't know it will actually return the index of the first found element using .index(), most of the examples online are without duplicated elements. Thanks!

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