Re: Confusing results from string multiplication

The difference is down to the optional argument for Fixnum#to_s, the
base for the string representation of the number:

 irb(main):026:0> 11.to_s(10)
 => "11"
 irb(main):027:0> 11.to_s(16)
 => "b"
 irb(main):028:0> 11.to_s(2)
 => "1011"

Note the last one.  Your '11.to_s *2' is being parsed as '11.to_s(2)'

In the other two cases, Ruby is parsing the input as: '(11.to_s) * 2' to
duplicate the string.

"11" * 2
yields the same result, however you place the spaces.

> Since I'm new to Ruby I thought I'd play with it a bit, and since I
> thought that whitespace wasn't supposed to matter

You have to be a little careful: whitespace matters in some cases to
help separate tokens.  For instance, you need a space or bracket before
the argument to a method, else the method name cannot be separated from
its argument:

 > 11.to_s10
NoMethodError: undefined method `to_s10' for 11:Fixnum
        from (irb):38
        from /usr/local/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
irb(main):039:0> 11.to_s 10
=> "11"

The confusion here is that ' *2' has a special meaning as a token when
used as the argument to a method, and this meaning does not arise in
other 'multiplication' settings.  Robert has just posted a nice
explanation of that meaning.

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