From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2002-09-10T14:46:27+09:00
Subject: Re: Problem with the downto method...

> Experts-
>
> I'm attempting to use the downto method to count down from a variable
> integer to 1. In the example that follows, sp_num was previously given
> the value of 2. However, when I run the code, I get this error:
>
>     undefined method 'downto' for "2":String (NameError)
>
> Here's the code:
>
>     sp_num.downto(1) {|sp_num_step|
>         do_stuff_here
>     }
>
> It seems to me I might have to do some sort of string-to-number
> translation here. I experimented by replacing "sp_num" with "#{sp_num}",
> but that just seemed to make a comment out of the line. (I got a parse
> error further on.)
>
> Help!
>
> Thanks.
>
> -Kurt

Yes, you need string-to-number translation.
  sp_num.to_i.downto(1) {...}
should work.

Ruby doesn't auto-convert between strings and numbers, thankfully.

Note that at least 6 classes support to_i, so the above code is
flexible/dangerous, depending on your point of view and the context.

Cheers,
Gavin