Re: Arrays and defs

Hi Jens,

The problem here is that whenever you type "def", you start a new scope. And
you can't directly access something (other than a global) in a different
scope. Here's how I might recommend approaching this:

class MyClass
  def initialize
    @list = ["a","b","c"]
  end

  def do_stuff
    list.each do |x|
      puts x
    end
  end
end

mc = MyClass.new
mc.do_stuff

Besides the technical changes, I've made a couple other simple modifications
to make your code more ruby-esque. These are stylistic, but worth learning:
1.) There's no point in putting Array.new in a variable before putting an
actual list in there. You can just put the list in it from the beginning.
(And, by the way, [] is equivalent to, and more idiomatic than, Array.new)

2.) Empty parens are not needed in method signatures (or, for the most part,
in any method signatures

3.) Unless you particularly need the index, you can use each to do something
directly with each item in a list.

Good luck!

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:04 AM, Jens Finn辰s <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hi, I've just started learning Ruby for screen scraping purposes and
> I've now run in to a problem I can't get my head around.
>
> Is it not possible to call an array outside a defintion? Like this:
>
> list = Array.new
> list = ["a", "b", "c"]
>
> def do_stuff()
>  list.each_index do |i|
>    puts list[i]
>  end
> end
>
> do_stuff()
>
> If I define list inside do_stuff() the script works. My plan was to
> build an array through several functions.
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>