From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-07-18T07:42:20+09:00
Subject: Re: type conversion


On Jul 17, 2007, at 5:05 PM, Ian Whitlock wrote:

> Shandy Nantz wrote:
>> So there is an to_s for strings and a to_i for integers. However,  
>> if I
>> have an array of integers and I want to grab one, I get back and  
>> ASCII
>> character. For example, when I grab a 1 from the array it returns  
>> a 49 -
>> but I wanted the one! How do I convert it back to its integer
>> want-to-be? Thanks,
>>
>> ~S
>>
>> P.S. I imagine this is probably an easy solution but, I am a ruby
>> newbie.
>
> Shandy, Perhaps this helps.  Note the difference between 004 and 006
>
> irb(main):003:0> i = "1234"
> => "1234"
> irb(main):004:0> i[0]
> => 49
> irb(main):005:0> i[0].class
> => Fixnum
> irb(main):006:0> i[0,1]
> => "1"
> irb(main):007:0> i[0,1].class
> => String
> irb(main):008:0> i[0,1].to_i
> => 1
> irb(main):009:0> i[0,1].to_i.class
> => Fixnum
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
arr = "1234"

Will only give you a string.
You need :
arr = Array.new
arr << 1
arr << 2
...
OR
arr = [1,2,3,4,]

At the command line, use ri:
ri Array
ri '[]='
ri 'Array#[]='
ri 'String#[]='