From: brabuhr@...
Date: 2006-11-21T12:24:26+09:00
Subject: Re: Bug in ruby?

On 11/20/06, AliasX Neo <kamipride102@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, I've spent the last hour or so debugging one of the stupidest
> errors I have encountered with Ruby.
>
> Let's see my code first:
>
> [code]def parse(string, starting, ending)
>         istart = string.index(starting) + starting.length
>         iend = string.index(ending, istart)
>         return string.slice(istart, iend - istart)
>     end[/code]
>
> This function is called about 13 times in my entire script. It breaks on
> the last one with this error:
>
> undefined method `+' for nil:NilClass
>
> Now, I have debugged the living hell out of this application. It's
> breaking on the first line, stating that starting.length is a nil object
> and that it can't perform a + operator in a nil object. The string
> that's getting passed into starting is:

Wouldn't it be string.index() that is Nil here:

    string.index(starting).+(starting.length)

starting.length is a parameter to the '+' method being called on the
result of index().