Asp Forum - Re: increasing counter whithin loop?

Kroeger, Simon (ext)

12/8/2005 3:35:00 PM

> Hi Simon,

Hi Steve,

> I just ran your code, and got the exact output you got, but I
> don't understand
> a bit of it.

:/

> First, I'm unclear as to the use of variables starting with
> colon. What are
> they, when are they used?

actually these aren't variables but values, symbols to be
specific:

http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/ref_c_s...

they aren't used for any purpose in this example, the array just
had to contain something.

> Also, are prv, this and nxt just any old variables, or are
> they somehow
> supplied by enumerator?

no they are not supplied by enumerator, each_cons yields arrays
do the block (containing 3 elements in this case).

because of the magick of ruby's assign operator you can write

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

which is equal to

a, b, c = 1, 2, 3

or

a = 1; b = 2; c = 3

this is used here to give the 3 elements of the array yielded by
each_cons more meaningfull names.

> Is variable a a string, an array, or something else?

an array. [...] creates arrays, see

http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_containe...

> Why did you place an array containing only nil before and
> after a in the
> parentheses?

because, well because I would have missed the first and the last
element of a otherwise. (I would have seen them in 'prv' or 'nxt'
but never in 'this')

> Thank you for this code. When I asked my question about how
> to stop writing
> Ruby with a Perl accent, I was hoping to understand
> constructs like this one.
> I have about 8 days experience with Ruby and so have some
> catching up to do.

just hang on

cheers

Simon

comp.lang.ruby

Re: increasing counter whithin loop?

Kroeger, Simon (ext)

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