Perl-ish solution for the Secret Santas Ruby Quiz (http://rubyquiz.com/quiz2.html)

santas.rb

# Perl-ish solution for the Secret Santas Ruby Quiz (http://rubyquiz.com/quiz2.html)
santas = "Luke Skywalker <luke@theforce.net>
Leia Skywalker <leia@therebellion.org>
Gus Portokalos <gus@weareallfruit.net>
Toula Portokalos <toula@manhunter.org>
Bruce Wayne <bruce@imbatman.com>
Virgil Brigman <virgil@rigworkersunion.org>
Lindsey Brigman <lindsey@iseealiens.net>
".split("\n")

def give_and_take!(santas)
  givers, takers, giving = santas.sort_by { rand }, santas.sort_by { rand }, {}
  while !givers.empty? && (giver, taker = givers.last.split[1], takers.last.split[1])
    (giver == taker || givers.empty?) ? break : (giving[givers.pop] = takers.pop)
  end
  giving
end

def too_many_people_per_family?(santas)
  map = {}  
  santas.each { |s| map[s.split[1]] ||= []; map[s.split[1]] << s }  
  biggies = map.keys.select { |k| k if ((map[k].size.to_f/santas.size) > 0.5) }
  biggies.each { |e| p "Too many people on the #{e} family!" }
  !biggies.empty?
end

def try_and_try_and_try!(santas)
  return if too_many_people_per_family?(santas)
  
  giving = {}
  giving = give_and_take!(santas)  while (giving.keys.size != santas.size)
  giving.each { |k, v| p "#{k.split[0..1].join(' ')} => #{v.split[0..1].join(' ')}" }
end

try_and_try_and_try!(santas)