From: "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwryder@...>
Date: 2007-01-23T10:55:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Placing tabs in strings in irb

Joel VanderWerf wrote:
> Michael W. Ryder wrote:
>> Is there any reason I cannot embed tabs in a string while using irb?  
>> I am trying to create a string using tabs to separate the various 
>> values for testing -- i.e. a = '1    2    3    4'.  Using irb it 
>> either  ignores the tab character or places a random value in the string.
>> On a related note why is the value for the above string '1' if I use 
>> a.to_i to display it?  I would have expected an error.
> 
> If you *want* this to error, use
> 
> irb(main):001:0> Integer("1 2")
> ArgumentError: invalid value for Integer: "1 2"
>         from (irb):4:in `Integer'
>         from (irb):4
> 
Thanks for the tip.  I had known about the to_i method and assumed that 
was the only way to do the conversion.