From: James Harrison <oscartheduck@...>
Date: 2010-08-02T22:21:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Iteration through File.file? misses entries for which  File.file?(entry) == true

>> 
>> def getFiles(dir)
>>    pwdFiles = Array.new
>> 
>>    Dir.foreach(dir) do |entry|
>>        pwdFiles.push(entry) if File.file?(entry) == true
>>    end
>> end
>> 

The symbolic constant for truth is True, not true.

In either case, because File.file? returns either True or False, you can drop the comparison:


>> def getFiles(dir)
>>    pwdFiles = Array.new
>> 
>>    Dir.foreach(dir) do |entry|
>>        pwdFiles.push(entry) if File.file?(entry)
>>    end
>> end


If this is truly a method in an object, though, bear in mind scoping issues. pwdFiles is only available inside this method definition. When you declare it in your intialize statement, prepend with a scope-changing symbol. The most common in this case is @

def initialize
    #will contain all file entries in the directory
    @pwdFiles = []
end

def get_files(dir)
    @pwdFiles = Array.new
    
    Dir.foreach(dir) do |entry|
        @pwdFiles.push(entry) if File.file?(entry) == true
    end
end



And pay attention to the advice about camelCase versus snake_case for method names: because Ruby's duck typed, it's helped me out sometimes to be able to glance at my code and tell what is a variable and what isn't very quickly.

Best

James