From: Paul Smith <paul@...>
Date: 2009-12-06T07:10:33+09:00
Subject: Re: different output for same expression?

2009/12/5 Jesús Gabriel y Galán <jgabrielygalan@gmail.com>:
> On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 6:43 PM, Paul Smith <paul@pollyandpaul.co.uk> wrote:
>> On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 5:14 PM, Steven Arnold
>> <stevena@arnold-software.com> wrote:
>>> Forgive me if this is an elementary question and I am missing something obvious, but there is a behavior in Ruby that puzzles me a lot.
>>>
>>> I don't see why the two blocks below do not produce the same output.  One displays the numerically sorted array and the other does not.
>>>
>>> # Block 1
>>> myarray = ["210", "22"]
>>> myarray = myarray.sort do |a,b|
>>>    a.to_i <=> b.to_i
>>> end
>>> puts myarray
>>>
>>> # Block 2
>>> myarray = ["210", "22"]
>>> puts myarray.sort do |a,b|
>>>    a.to_i <=> b.to_i
>>> end
>>>
>>> In one case, I reassign myarray to the return value of the sort method for myarray and then print myarray.  In the other case, I just directly print the return value of the sort method.  Shouldn't the return value be the same in both cases, and therefore the output also the same?
>>
>> Precedence.
>>
>> Note that "puts myarray" returns myarray.
>
> This is not correct. puts returns nil:

I'm so sorry.  I knew something was wrong with my explanation but
posted it anyway, which was silly.

Of course puts returns nil, it says so every time I type it into irb :)

-- 
Paul Smith
http://www.nomadicfun.co.uk

paul@pollyandpaul.co.uk