From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2008-05-15T04:32:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Array assignment with multiple args


On May 14, 2008, at 3:20 PM, Jeff Hales wrote:

> Hi all. I'm just starting to learn Ruby and have hit a problem that is
> being extremely difficult to find information on. When given a line of
> code such as:
>
> a = "this", b = "that", c = "those"

This statement is parsed as:

a = [ "this",  (b = "that"),  (c = "those") ]

The right hand side of the assignment to variable 'a'
is an array of three items:
   first item:  a string with value "this"
   second item: a string with value "that"
   third item:  a string with value "those"

As a side effect, the variable b is assigned to "that"
and the variable c is assigned to "those"

The example you gave is pretty unusual.  I *think* you
were thinking about parallel assignment, which would
look like:

a, b, c = "this", "that", "those"

Gary Wright