From: Derek Wyatt <derek@...>
Date: 2005-08-27T00:43:29+09:00
Subject: Re: to_s and to_str

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Mark Volkmann wrote:
| Here's what I've learned so far.
| 1) Every object has to_s because Object provides a default
implementation.
| 2) Some classes override to_s to return a more useful String.
| 3) to_str should only be implemented in classes whose objects can
| logically be used as Strings.
|
| If you're going to implement to_str in a class, is there a reason why
| it might return something different than to_s?  Is one considered a
| human-readable representation and the other something else?
|
| Isn't "can be logically used as Strings" a somewhat subjective thing?
|

class MyInteger
~  def to_s
~    "MyInteger has this value: #{@value}"
~  end

~  def to_str
~    "#{@value}"
~  end
end

I would say that to_str is more of a programmatically readable type
of string... think of it more as a type conversion from the object's
native value and the String value, whereas to_s is something more
"pretty".

Regs,
D

- --
Derek Wyatt - C++ / Ruby / Unix Programmer
http://derekwyatt.org
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