From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2008-09-18T23:33:54+09:00
Subject: Re: why one array continues to grow after repeated call

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On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 9:27 AM, Li Chen <chen_li3@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Brian Candler wrote:
> > Li Chen wrote:
> >> I expect that once an array is set up it should be fixed regardless how
> >> many times it is called.
> >
> > I'm not sure why you expect that.
> >
> > In your program, you first assign @b1 to an empty array.
> >
> > In method2, you loop around 4 times pushing '10' onto the end of the
> > array. Therefore @b1 becomes, each time around the loop,
> > [10]
> > [10,10]
> > [10,10,10]
> > [10,10,10,10]
>
> How come this loop happan? I don't want a loop here.
>

Because that's what you coded:

irb(main):008:1*  def method2
irb(main):009:2>   (method1.size).times{@b1<<10}
irb(main):010:2>    return @b1
irb(main):011:2>  end

$ qri Integer#times
---------------------------------------------------------- Integer#times
     int.times {|i| block }     => int
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Iterates block int times, passing in values from zero to int - 1.

It's not really clear what you are trying to do with your two methods, why
not just initialize both instance variable in the intialize method?

class A
   def initialize
        @a1 = [1,2,3,4]
        @b1 = [10].@a1.length   # or more clearly just [10, 10, 10, 10]
   end

   def method1
        @a1
   end

   def method2
       @b1
   end
end

I'll leave discussion about using intention revealing method and variable
names for another time.

-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/

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