From: Rich Kilmer <rich@...>
Date: 2002-04-10T11:15:24+09:00
Subject: RE: Easy character comparisons

Ah...yet another reason for:

"string".begins_with? "s" => true 
(which does not work, but would be nice)

-Rich

PS.  "string"[0..0] is about as good as it gets I'm afraid.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sean O'Dell [mailto:sean@celsoft.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 9:37 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Easy character comparisons
> 
> 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.
> 
>     Sean