From: Douglas Livingstone <rampant@...>
Date: 2005-04-14T03:27:19+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie question re: variable assignment

>   1.upto(9) do |x|
>         puts "#{x}"[0]
>   end
> 

You can also use .to_s (convert to string) directly:

1.upto(9) { |x| puts x.to_s[0] }

Douglas