From: Richard Lionheart <NoOne@...>
Date: 2004-04-24T00:19:10+09:00
Subject: Problem assigning an Array object to an Array-subclass object

[ I apologize if this is a second post.  My earlier one seems to have gotten
lost in the ethernet :-) ]

notes =<<NOTES
    I didn't like to_s' output for an Array of strings.
    Array#to_s simply concatenated them
    or inserted a comma separator.
    So I wrote my own.
    But as the last line indicates,  I failed.

    Apparently, array assignment to myA1
    changed the reference from a MyArrayType object
    to an Array object.

    Two questions:
    1.  How can I set myA1 to an array value
        and preserve it's type?
    2.  Isn't there a "Ruby way" to set the separator
    (I thought there was some special symbol a la Perl
    but I couldn't find any in Thomas' or Fulton's
    books.)
NOTES

class MyArrayType < Array
    def to_s
        print "Starting MyArrayType#to_s"
        s = ""
        s.each { |x| s += "; " if s.length>0; s += x.to_s }
        s
    end
end

myA1 = MyArrayType.new
myA1 = %w[x1, y1]
puts myA1.to_s  # x1,y1 .... expected x1; x2 .... MyArrayType#to_s not
invoked




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