From: Austin Ziegler <austin@...>
Date: 2003-11-17T13:23:20+09:00
Subject: Re: to_i

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:24:58 +0900, Artur Merke wrote:
>> IMHO this is a struggle between convenience and cleanness.  I guess
>> Matz decided for convenience in this case, maybe because in most cases
>> using 0 is ok.  If you want to do correct input checking you do /^[+-
>> ]?\d+$/ =~ foo anyway.
>> 
> IMO, it has to do with the principle of least surprise, and it is a BIG
> surprise to get "hello".to_i -> 0

http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/cstdlib/atoi.html

It is common for integer conversion techniques to use only what is known 
(e.g., "123hello" => 123; "hello" => 0). Delphi's StrToInt method, however, 
will throw an error (in some silly cases, IMO).

-austin
--
austin ziegler    * austin@halostatue.ca * Toronto, ON, Canada
software designer * pragmatic programmer * 2003.11.16
                                         * 23.21.40