Array select with multiple conditions ruby

Question

I can do:

@items = @items.select {|i| i.color == 'blue'}
@items = @items.select {|i| i.color == 'blue' || i.color == 'red'}

What if I am given an unknown amount of colors and I want to select them all? i.e.

['red','blue','green','purple']
# or
['blue','red']

I've been working on a mess of code that creates several temporary arrays and then merges or flattens them into one, but I'm really unhappy with it.

Answer 1

Try this:

colors = ['red','blue','green','purple']
@items = @items.select { |i| colors.include?(i.color) }

You might also want to consider this instead, for in-place changes:

@items.reject! { |i| !colors.include?(i.color) }

Answer 2

not sure I fully understand your question but would work for you?

colors_array = ['blue','red','whatever']
@items = @items.select {|i| colors_array.include?(i)}