From: Justin Collins <collinsj@...>
Date: 2005-12-15T05:28:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Concerning the #to_* convention

Daniel Schierbeck wrote:
> ts wrote:
>>>>>>> "D" == Daniel Schierbeck <daniel.schierbeck@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> D> I hope you can give me a hint of what the best practice is.
>>
>>  I don't know what is the best practice but you can ask ruby
>>
>> moulon% ruby -e 'a = [1, 2]; b = a.to_a; p a.object_id==b.object_id'
>> true
>> moulon%
>> moulon% ruby -e 'a = "12"; b = a.to_s; p a.object_id==b.object_id'
>> true
>> moulon%
>>
>>
>> Guy Decoux
>
> Sweet! Thanks!
>
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel
>
Those two examples are returning the same object because it is already 
in the desired form. If it is actually a change, you will get a new object:

irb(main):001:0> a = 12
=> 12
irb(main):002:0> b = a.to_s
=> "12"
irb(main):003:0> a.object_id
=> 25
irb(main):004:0> b.object_id
=> -605442624


-Justin