From: Max Williams <toastkid.williams@...>
Date: 2009-07-23T18:14:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby "star".... what's it?

Mirko Viviani wrote:
> Hi everybody.
> What means this snippet of code? Why use the "star" ?
> 
> myarray = [1,2,3,4,5,6,6]
> qa = *myarray
> 
> Thank you.

In this example it doesn't really do anything, i think.  Normally you 
would use the * in an argument list, in a method definition, to 
effectively say 'pull all arguments after this into a single array', eg

>> def foo(mainarg, *otherargs)
>>   puts mainarg.inspect
>>   puts otherargs.inspect
>> end
=> nil
>> foo(1,2,3,4,5,6)
1
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
=> nil

In this sense it's like * in a regular expression, meaning 'any number 
of arguments'.  That's how i understand it anyway, a more precise 
description will probably be forthcoming :)
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.