From: "trans.  (T. Onoma)" <transami@...>
Date: 2004-10-03T14:04:22+09:00
Subject: Re: Just Found Integer()

On Sunday 03 October 2004 12:54 am, Ara.T.Howard@noaa.gov wrote:
> been there for a while:
>
>    harp:~ > /usr/bin/ruby -v -e'p Integer(42)'
>    ruby 1.6.8 (2002-12-24) [i386-linux-gnu]
>    42
>
> it's just a method that happens to also be a constant.
>
>    harp:~ > /usr/bin/ruby -v -e'p Kernel.methods.grep(/Int/)'
>    ruby 1.6.8 (2002-12-24) [i386-linux-gnu]
>    ["Integer"]
>
> think of it like Kernel.open being shorthand for File::open - it makes
> dirty scipts feel short and sweet - but it's really a class method of File.
>  the Integer and friend methods are better than, say String#to_i because
>
>    harp:~ > /usr/bin/ruby -v -e'p "42abc".to_i'
>    ruby 1.6.8 (2002-12-24) [i386-linux-gnu]
>    42
>
>    harp:~ > /usr/bin/ruby -v -e'p Integer("42abc")'
>    ruby 1.6.8 (2002-12-24) [i386-linux-gnu]
>    -e:1:in `Integer': invalid value for Integer: "42abc" (ArgumentError)
>            from -e:1
>
> i use them all the time because of this - if fact, my post from earlier
> today has the Integer() contruct in it ;-)

But that sort of begs the question. Why not Integer['42abc'] ?

T.