From: Pete Yandell <pete@...>
Date: 2006-06-26T08:57:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Stumped:beginners question

I'm just going to rewrite this, because there are a bunch of bad  
things in it.

def ask(question)
   response_is_valid = false
   result = false
   while !response_is_valid
     puts question
     reply = gets.chomp.downcase
     case reply
       when 'yes'
         result = true
         response_is_valid = true
       when 'no'
         result = false
         response_is_valid = false
       else
         puts 'Please answer "yes" or "no".'
     end
   end
   result
end

Part of the reason you're getting confused is that you're using the  
'reply' variable for several things: to store the entered string, to  
store the final result, and to determine whether a valid response has  
been entered. That's called overloading a variable, and is bad  
programming practice. In the version above (which is probably a bit  
more verbose than it really needs to be, but should be easier for you  
to work with), I've split those things out into three separate  
variables.

Cheers,

Pete Yandell
http://9cays.com/


On 25/06/2006, at 11:32 PM, Dark Ambient wrote:

> I'm having a hard time with both getting my branching correct as well
> as my loop.
> In this little program, the survey taker asks expecting a "yes" or
> "no" (currently not working correctly). If any other response is
> given, then the survey taken says..please answer with yes or no...
>
> I commented out the return at the end since I'm not even sure what  
> that's doing.
>
> TIA
> Stuart
>
> $stdout.sync = true
>
> def ask question
>    reply = nil
>      while (not reply)
>          puts question
>          reply = gets.chomp.downcase
>
>      if (reply !='yes' || reply != 'no' )
>          puts ' Please answer "yes" or "no".'
>
>
>      elsif reply == 'yes'
>          reply = true
>      else reply == 'no'
>          reply = false
>      end
>    end
> end
>
> #reply # This is what we return (true or false).
> #end
>