From: DracoJK <dracojk@...>
Date: 2007-02-25T06:10:54+09:00
Subject: Just started learning Ruby

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I've been working through the Humble Ruby Book that I found in a signature
of one of ruby talk's list members, and would like a little more explanation
as to how pointing to a pointer works.

The example used was a string:

first_var = "i hold a reference"
→ i hold a reference
second_var = first_var
→ i hold a reference
second_var.chop! # Chops off the last character of the string
→ i hold a referenc
first_var
→ i hold a referenc

This works fine... I understand this... but I tried it with an integer
rather than a string, and it doesn't seem to work how I expect it to.

first_var = 1
second_var = first_var
second_var += 1
puts first_var

this outputs 1, but I thought it'd output 2... o_O

What's the difference?  Why do variables work differently with integers as
opposed to strings?

Thanks for answering my ever so simple question. :)  I come from a java
background and never really thought about how things work when you point a
variable to another variable. :P

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