From: cliveharber@...
Date: 2007-10-31T22:04:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Can we define data types explicitly?

You can use is_a? or there is kind_of? and instance_of? methods

so you could test as follows

arr.each do |a|
    if a.is_a? Integer
         #do stuff here
    end
end

You can also use this in a case construct.

the 'Integer' is the type - you can also have things like Bignum, Fixnum, Numeric, String, Object, Array etc.

HTH

Clive

---- Shuaib Zahda <shuaib.zahda@gmail.com> wrote: 
> Hi
> 
> I am working on application that emphasizes on the data types of the
> data. The application reads a line from the user by the prompt. then it
> divides the entry into parts based on comma separator.
> e.g
> 
> f = gets
> <user input> "apple", 5, 8.9, "red"
> 
> after i split them in an array
> 
> arr = f.split(", ")
> 
> they will be all converted into string and stored in arr as elements of
> array.
> I need to check whether the type of 5 is integer or not, 8.9 is float,
> etc. In this case it is fine  but in the case that the user keys in
> string instead of float. the methods to_i, to_f will convert the string
> into 0 and assume it is of that type.
> 
> Is there any mechanism that allows me to check the data type ?
> 
> Regards
> Shuaib
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>