From: botp <botpena@...>
Date: 2008-02-20T10:26:47+09:00
Subject: Re: String Concatenation and Implicit Object Creation

From: pachl [mailto:clintpachl@gmail.com]
# Do adjacent strings or strings separated by backslash and a newline
# create multiple String objects?

iianm, no. you create just one string literal, ergo one string object.
it's part of ruby syntax on string literals. very useful if you want
to emphasize a  string part, similar to numeric literals where you can
put underscore to separate some digits...

# For example:

s1 = 'asdf' 'qwer'
#=> "asdfqwer"   # here string literal processing continues

s2 = 'asdf'\
    'qwer'
#=> "asdfqwer"   # here too

s1 = 'asdf' 'qwer' "#{s2}"  # still inline works
#=> "asdfqwerasdfqwer"


s1 = 'asdf' 'qwer' s2   # this one errs, ruby expect all literals
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):13: syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting $end
        from (irb):13
        from :0

s1 = 'asdf' + 'qwer' + s2
#=> "asdfqwerasdfqwer"

it may look like concat op,

s1 = 'asdf' 'qwer' + s2
#=> "asdfqwerasdfqwer"

but...

s1 = 'asdf' ('qwer' + s2)
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):17: syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting $end
s1 = 'asdf' ('qwer' + s2)
             ^
        from (irb):17
        from :0

s1 = ('asdf' 'qwer') + s2
#=> "asdfqwerasdfqwer"

kind regards -botp