Array.second_to_last and Array.third_to_last access methods

[brchristian]

Reading @dhh's Rails Doctrine essay got me thinking a lot about Rails' second and fifth accessor methods, which I (like DHH) love so much.

One of the things that has occurred to me about once every month or two since I began working with Rails (back in 2008) is that it'd be nice to have similarly natural ways of accessing the end of an array or relation. We have last, but it ends there. It's slightly jarring (for me anyway) to go from x.last to x[-2].

So, here's a proposal to add penultimate and antepenultimate as well. Partly for the delight factor, partly because I think it would actually be useful. (At least, it would to me.)

If next_to_last / second_to_last and third_to_last are more natural, we can easily use those instead, or make them aliases.

This is my first Rails PR, so I've tried to include everything (tests, documentation), but I'm happy to make alterations if I've missed anything.

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[dhh]

Good thinking. I've wanted this as well! I'd prefer to go with second_to_last + third_to_last, though. penultimate and antepenultimate are both long, cumbersome, and little used words. Welcome to Rails contributions!

[brchristian]

Thank you! Yeah, second_to_last + third_to_last sound good to me too, and I've adjusted accordingly in e8aeda2.

[vipulnsward]

@brchristian this needs CHANGELOG entry.

[brchristian]

Thanks! Added activerecord and activesupport CHANGELOG entries in eaa1efe.

[jeremy]

Next up: #the_end and #beginning_of_the_end 😁

[kaspth]

@jeremy my 💸 is on #apocalypse and #rapture respectively.

[jeremy]

🤘