From: Gennady <gfb@...>
Date: 2004-02-13T06:13:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Return value of foo=

Sam Roberts wrote:

> Quoteing matz@ruby-lang.org, on Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 05:44:48AM +0900:
> 
>>In message "Return value of foo=" >     on 04/02/13, Gavin Kistner <gavin@refinery.com> writes:
>>|The question is, is it possible to change the return value of a foo= 
>>|method to NOT be the argument?
>>
>>The value of assignment is defined to be its right hand value, even
>>when it calls a method internally.  You need to call "date=" method
>>explicitly to receive return value, e.g.
>>
>>  puts t3.send(:date=, 11)
> 
> 
> Ok, now I'm the confused one... :-) Why does it not look like that in irb?
> 
> [ensemble] ~/p/ruby $ irb
> irb(main):001:0> class Foo; def bar=(b); @bar = b; self; end; def
> bar; @bar; end; end
> nil
> irb(main):002:0> f = Foo.new
> #<Foo:0x16ded4>
> irb(main):003:0> f.bar = 9
> #<Foo:0x16ded4 @bar=9>
>   ^---- it looks like the value of the expression is "f", not "9".
> 
>   Is this just an oddity of irb?
> 
> irb(main):004:0> f.bar
> 9
> 
> Thanks,
> Sam
> 
> 

In Ruby 1.8.0 it behaves the way Matz explained. However, in Ruby 1.6.8 
it still works as in your example.

Gennady.