From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2005-03-25T21:04:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Iterating through a string and removing leading characters


"Randy Kramer" <rhkramer@gmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:200503241403.52395.rhkramer@gmail.com...

> Well, maybe I'd better recap for myself (correct me if I'm still off 
> base):
>
>   * (from earlier emails) Something like s1[start, length] (which I
> misunderstood earlier to be s1[start, end]) doesn't just let you look at a
> portion (substring) of the original string, but actually creates a new
> (sub)string (with all the overhead of creating a new string).

Correct.

>   * on the other hand, s1[index] does not create a new (one byte) string, 
> but
> simply returns a Fixnum (which happens to be an object) representing the
> ASCII value of the character.  In other words, this has none of the 
> overhead
> of creating a new string.

Correct.

>  (I guess this is where I'm still a little
> uncertain--does it go through some of the overhead of creating a new 
> string,

No.

> but the resultant new (one byte) strings all have the same value (the 
> ASCII

It's not a new string but simply a Fixnum; in other languages it would be a 
Character instance - if there was a specialized class / type for this.

> code for "i" which is Fixnum 105 of which (see next item) there is only 
> one,
> which has object_id 211?

Right.

>  Does it really matter to me?

Not really, athough understanding the performance effects and other 
pecularities of Fixnum can be useful at times.

>  Probably not, maybe
> it's just idle curiosity.)

.... which aids us in learning new things - so it's not too bad to have. 
(Only cats suffer more often than is good for them from curiosity induced 
negative effects...)

>   * when I do an object_id on that Fixnum, I always get the same value 
> (211
> for 105 (the Fixnum which represents "i")) because there is only one 
> Fixnum
> object in the system with the value 105.

Correct.

> I don't need a response to my "idle curiosity" question under the 2nd 
> bullet
> if the rest of my understanding is basicly (sp?) correct.

"sp?"?

Happy Easter

    robert