From: "Stephan Kämper" <stephan.kaemper@...>
Date: 2007-08-13T15:15:54+09:00
Subject: Re: first and last char

Hi,

Am 13.08.2007 um 08:04 schrieb Bertram Scharpf:
> Hi,
>
> Am Sonntag, 12. Aug 2007, 02:43:00 +0900 schrieb Felix Windt:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: botp [mailto:botpena@gmail.com]
>>> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 10:30 AM
>>>
>>> wish there were #first and #last in String
>>
>> irb(main):001:0> class String
>> irb(main):002:1> def first
>> irb(main):003:2> self.split('').first
>> irb(main):004:2> end
>> irb(main):005:1> def last
>> irb(main):006:2> self.split('').last
>> irb(main):007:2> end
>> irb(main):008:1> end
>> => nil
>> irb(main):009:0> "testing".first
>> => "t"
>> irb(main):010:0> "testing".last
>> => "g"
>
> Sometimes I wish every young programmer was forced to do a
> month in Assembler and another one in C just to see what
> cost in time and space some constructions cause.
>
> Sorry, Felix!

Well, here's something that should be a little bit less cycle  
intensive (depending on how String#[](arg) is implemented):

class String
    def last
     self[-1].chr
   end
end

Cheers


Stephan


-- 
Stephan K�mper/IT-Beratung  http://www.stephankaemper.de
Softwaretest / Datenanalyse / Entwicklung