From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2010-12-30T14:46:13+09:00
Subject: Re: What am I missing about splat operator?


On Dec 29, 2010, at 05:21 , Josh Cheek wrote:

> a = Object.new
> 
> def a.to_ary
>  [1, 2]
> end
> 
> b , c = a
> 
> b # => 1
> c # => 2
> 
> 
> Yes, it works. But I am confused where to_ary came from. I have never used
> it myself, and wouldn't have even thought to use it except I saw it in the
> sexp.

to_ary and to_str are implicit cast methods. to_a (deprecated for Array()) and to_s are (usually) explicit cast methods. to_ary/str are used internally when something is used in an array or string context and you're saying that the object is array-like or string-like. Most things aren't array-like tho, so you don't see the method much.