From: Konrad Meyer <konrad@...>
Date: 2007-10-11T12:25:34+09:00
Subject: Re: what does print call internally?

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Quoth Joel VanderWerf:
> Eric Hodel wrote:
> > On Oct 10, 2007, at 15:31 , Martin DeMello wrote:
> >=20
> >> irb(main):001:0> puts nil
> >> nil
> >> =3D> nil
> >> irb(main):002:0> print nil
> >> nil=3D> nil
> >> irb(main):003:0> class NilClass
> >> irb(main):004:1> def inspect
> >> irb(main):005:2> "foo"
> >> irb(main):006:2> end
> >> irb(main):007:1> end
> >> =3D> foo
> >=20
> > it calls #to_s.
>=20
> Hm. What's going on here then:
>=20
> $ ruby -e 'p nil.to_s'
> ""
> $ ruby -e 'print nil'
> nil
>=20
> --=20
>        vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407

Irb calls NilClass#inspect, as the OP demonstrated.

  irb(main):001:0> class NilClass; def inspect() "foo" end; end # =3D> foo
  irb(main):002:0> nil                                          # =3D> foo
  irb(main):003:0> puts nil                                     # =3D> foo
  nil

I'm guessing puts/print treat nil as a special case, but I may be wrong.

=2D-=20
Konrad Meyer <konrad@tylerc.org> http://konrad.sobertillnoon.com/

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