From: "J. Cooper" <nefigah@...>
Date: 2008-11-19T06:14:21+09:00
Subject: Re: let my custom defined class convert to string?

Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> I wondered why #to_str and #to_s both existed, but my stack overflow 
> error seems to suggest that in some cases one is defined in terms of the 
> other. I still wonder why they both exist.

The basic rule of thumb is that #to_s is for when we want something to 
have a form readable to us, and #to_str is for when we want something to 
have a string representation that allows it to be used in place of 
actual String arguments.

Thus #print and #puts use #to_s, as they assume we want some readable 
output for humans, and most everything else that needs strings for 
arguments will try #to_str.

Defining one doesn't define the other.

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