From: Steven Lumos <steven@...>
Date: 2006-09-27T07:51:04+09:00
Subject: Re: string#[]

Newbie <none@none.com> writes:

> Thomas Adam wrote:
>>> This must be a common newbie question, but I can't find the answer.
>>>
>>> Why does string#[] return an ASCII code, rather than a character?
>>>
>>> "abc"[1,2] #-> "bc"
>>> "abc"[1..2] #-> "bc"
>>> "abc"[1] #-> 98
>> It tells you why in "ri String#[]":
>> ``
>> Element Reference---If passed a single +Fixnum+, returns the code
>> of the character at that position. If passed two +Fixnum+ objects,
>> returns a substring starting at the offset given by the first, and
>> a length given by the second. If given a range, a substring
>> containing characters at offsets given by the range is returned.
>> ''
>> -- Thomas Adam

> That answers what?, which I already knew. I'm asking why?

Probably because a one-character String is 22 bytes and a Fixnum is
4 (on 32-bit archs).

As James said, a future version of Ruby will return a one-character
string in that case.  In the meantime if you are just doing
comparisons you can use the Ruby character literal syntax:

  next if line[0] == ?#

Steve