From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2002-11-26T15:15:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Difference between puts and print

> Whereas if you try the following:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> p var
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> it prints:
> #<Foo:0x401f36b4 @var="bar">
>
> Is there a way to override this behavior?  So you could put
> something different much like the array or hash printout with
> the #p method?

class Foo
   def inspect
     "Just override 'inspect'"
   end
end

p var   # -> "Just override 'inspect'"


Notice that I didn't have to do a 'var Foo.new' again.  var was already a
Foo, so when I modified Foo, var was changed correspondigly.

>
> --Andrew
>
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > #to_s			| calls the 'stringify method' which prints
> > > 				| a pretty version of the string (such as
> > > 				| a way to print arrays in a meaningful way
> > > 				| to a human)
> >
> > This one is cool.
> >
> > class  Foo
> >    def initialize
> >      @var = "bar"
> >    end
> >    def to_s
> >      "This is a customized string"
> >    end
> > end
> >
> > var = Foo.new
> >
> > puts var
> >
> > Prints out:
> > "This is a customized string"
> >
>
>