From: Ilan Berci <coder68@...>
Date: 2008-02-03T09:27:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Why is my var undefined?

Tim wrote:
> I'm new to ruby and I have the following code:
> 
>   index=0
>   unsorted_array.each do |value|
>     if index==0
>       smallest=value
>       smallest_index=0
>     elsif value<smallest
>       smallest=value
>       smallest_index=index
>     end
>     index=index+1
>   end
> 
> When it gets to index 1, it crashes and says that smallest is
> undefined (on the elsif line).  Why is that, when it gets defined in
> the first pass (index = 0) ?
> 
> Thanks for helping a newbie out.
> 
> Tim

It's only defined for the scope that it's in.. which is the "if" block.. 
Once it leaves that block and your code returns to the 
"unsorted_array.each" scope, "smallest" is out of scope and therefore no 
longer defined.

Dave Thomas has a free online version of Ruby 1.6 referred as the Pick 
Axe book which discusses scope and I think you will find it very useful

hth

ilan

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