Can't get Ruby method to pass spec for Anagram method

Question

I'm trying to get this to pass spec to verify if an argument is an anagram of another word, but it's just not happening.

• I can get the string (starting with just one sting word) into an array, and whether it's one or multiple words,
• It then iterates through the array over each word.
• Using the If statement to compare if the sorted object is equal to the sorted argument.

• Applied .join, since it came out one letter at a time in irb, but it's still not happening, with or without .join.

    class String
      define_method(:anagrams) do |check_word|
        words = self.downcase
        check_word = check_word.downcase
        words_array = words.split(" ")
  
        words_array.each do |word|
          if (word.chars.sort) == (check_word.chars.sort)
            true
          else
            false
          end
        end
      end
    end
  

Any ideas why it's broken?

Answer 1

words_array.each do |word|
  if (word.chars.sort) == (check_word.chars.sort)
    true
  else
    false
  end
end

I'm assuming you want to return true if any words are anagrams. You're currently not explicitly returning.

Better Ruby syntax would be words_array.any? { |word| word.chars.sort == check_word.chars.sort) }

OR

words_array.each do |word|
  return true if (word.chars.sort) == (check_word.chars.sort)
end

Answer 2

Here's another way to see if two words w1 and w2 are anagrams of each other:

def anagrams?(w1, w2)
  w1.size == w2.size && w1.chars.difference(w2.chars).empty?
end

where Array#difference is how I defined it in my answer here.

Array#difference is similar to Array#-. The difference is illustrated in the following example:

a = [1,2,3,4,3,2,2,4]
b = [2,3,4,4,4]

a     -      b #=> [1]
a.difference b #=> [1, 3, 2, 2] 

Let's try it:

anagrams?("tops", "stop")  #=> true
anagrams?("tops", "stopz") #=> false
anagrams?("tops", "stopz") #=> false
anagrams?("tops", "sto")   #=> false