From: David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Date: 2002-04-10T11:05:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Easy character comparisons

Hello --

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Sean O'Dell wrote:

> Today I spent a little time debugging something I "didn't expect."  I
> evaluated (using if) string[index] against a single character in a string
> and for awhile, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.  Then I
> realized that string[index] returns a number, not a string containing a
> single character.  Example:
>
>     "string"[0] == "s"  =>  false
>
> I ended up having to change the expression to something like this:
>
>     "string"[0..0] == "s"  =>  true
>
> Is there a more elegant way of doing this sort of comparison?  My fudged way
> seems awkward.

You could do:

  "string"[0].chr == "s"

Not shorter, but maybe nicer-looking.

(Is this in lieu of String#begins_with? :-)


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav