From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-12-28T02:22:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie problem: String can't be coerced into Fixnum

Hi --

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006, dblack@wobblini.net wrote:

> Hi --
>
> On Thu, 28 Dec 2006, Ja Bo wrote:
>
>> I am brand new to Ruby and I would greatly appreciate any help you guys
>> can provide!
>> 
>> If this is not the correct place to post them please let me know where I
>> should post these types of questions.
>> 
>> This very short program is just supposed to take today's date using t =
>> Time.now and calculating what year the user was born...
>> 
>> Code:
>> puts "How old are you?"
>> age = gets.chomp
>> 
>> puts name + " is " + age + " years old."
>> 
>> t = Time.now
>> born = t.year - age
>
> The problem there is that t.year is an integer and age is a string.
> You need to convert age:
>
>  born = t.year - age.to_i   # to_i is "to integer"
>
>> puts "You were probably born in " + born + "."
>
> And don't forget you can use string interpolation:
>
>  puts "You were probably born in #{born}."
>
> Or even do it all at once:
>
>  puts "You were probably born in #{Time.now.year - age.to_i}."
>
> :-)

And, as the other responses reminded me, if you do it the way you
were, you have to convert born to a string:

   puts "You were probably born in " + born.to_s + "."

With string interpolation, you don't; the interpolation automatically
does the conversion.


David

-- 
Q. What is THE Ruby book for Rails developers?
A. RUBY FOR RAILS by David A. Black (http://www.manning.com/black)
    (See what readers are saying!  http://www.rubypal.com/r4rrevs.pdf)
Q. Where can I get Ruby/Rails on-site training, consulting, coaching?
A. Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)