The duplication of p1, p2, p3 bugs me.
y.zip(r, q).each { |p1, p2, p3|
puts '%5s %5s | %3s' % [p1, p2, p3]
}
Maybe there is a solution with map? Is there a way to insert the variables directly into the string rather than using this formatting?
Each element of the zip'd array is an array, you can just use the whole array
y.zip(r, q).each {|p| puts '%5s %5s | %3s' % p}
y.zip(r, q).each {|*p| puts '%5s %5s | %3s' % p}
p will be an array containing a nested array and the nested array will have three elements but the outer array won't. You'll get a "too few arguments" for the puts.
*p is a way of packing (or unpacking) arguments into (out of) an array. It can be a useful technique.... for example if you have a method foo and you don't know how many arguments will be passed, you can automatically combine them into an array. You would do foo('Sam', 'Joe', 'Pete') but when you define the method you woul do def foo(*names) giving you an array called names instead of def foo(name_1 name_2, name_3) giving you three separate variables.