From: Caleb Clausen <vikkous@...>
Date: 2009-07-22T06:36:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Simple problem with Regular Expression

On 7/21/09, Iņaki Baz Castillo <ibc@aliax.net> wrote:
> Ruby code must be beautiful:
>
> ----------------------------------
> fruit = gets.chomp.downcase
>
> case fruit
> when "orange"
> 	color = "orange"
> when "apple"
> 	color = "green"
> when "banana"
> 	color = "yellow"
> else
> 	color = "unknown"
> end
>
> if %w{a e i o u}.include?(fruit[0])
> 	puts "An #{fruit} is #{color}."
> else
> 	puts "A #{fruit} is #{color}."
> end
> -----------------------------------
>
> :)
>
>
> PS: Just valid for 1.9 due to the usage of "fruit[0]".

But, you can do better:

FRUIT2COLOR={
  'orange'=>'orange', 'apple'=>'red', 'banana'=>'yellow'
}
fruit = gets.chomp.downcase
color=FRUIT2COLOR[fruit] || 'unknown'
if /^[aeiou]/===fruit
  article="An"
else
  article="A"
end
puts "#{article} #{fruit} is #{color}."

Works perfectly in 1.8.

PS: since this program seems to assume english input, you can also
assume ascii encoding, and therefore your version works fine in 1.8
too.

PPS: Hmm, I seem to have subconsciously repainted the apples red. I
was going to point out that apples are stereotypically red, and that
the bananas you can actually buy in the store are actually green...