From: Pete McBreen <pete@...>
Date: 2002-04-20T00:38:10+09:00
Subject: Re: object question

Roy J. Milican asked

>  I remember reading some where in one of the many Ruby books I have
>  that you can change what an object returns when you call it by
>  itself.  Usually it returns the object ID.  But I can't find where I
>  read this and I've looked everywhere.  Any one like to give me a
>  hand on this one?


Are you thinking of the to_s method?

irb(main):001:0> class Cat;end
nil
irb(main):002:0> c = Cat.new
#<Cat:0x2bdf7a8>
irb(main):003:0> c
#<Cat:0x2bdf7a8>
irb(main):004:0> class Cat
irb(main):005:1>   def to_s
irb(main):006:2>     return "meow"
irb(main):007:2>   end
irb(main):008:1> end
nil
irb(main):009:0> c
meow
irb(main):010:0>

Pete
----
Pete McBreen, McBreen.Consulting , Cochrane, AB
email: petemcbreen@acm.org    http://www.mcbreen.ab.ca/ 

Author, "Software Craftsmanship The New Imperative" 
Addison-Wesley (C) 2002
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201733862
Finalist for the 2002 Jolt Awards