4 ms·

>> There is no implicit type conversion between numeric, string or boolean types. >Ok. This is a good thing. Auto conversion is bad. One of the things I reall

by seasoup 15y ago

>> There is no implicit type conversion between numeric, string or boolean types. >Ok. This is a good thing. Auto conversion is bad. One of the things I really dislike about developing in Ruby is that I can't do value = 5 "The value is " + 5 I get bitten by this at least 10 times a day while developing, usually either when dumping to the log, or writing into html. I can fix the problem really quickly now, but every time I get an error: "r" + 5 "TypeError: can't convert Fixnum into String" I think, yes, yes you can easily convert a Fixnum into a String. "r" + 5.to_s It just means I have to sprinkle .to_s everywhere in my code. Ridiculous!

msy 15y ago
Just use inline implicit conversion: "r #{5+3/2}"
- jamesbritt 15y ago
  It's a lot more typing. :) If one really wanted that kind of behavior (and not getting errors when trying to add strings and number) you could make it so: class String def +(o) warn "You are adding a #{o.class} to a string." unless o.is_a? String "#{self}#{o}" end end for example. Whether this leads to other issues is left as an exercise for the reader and whomever ends up maintaining the reader's code.
andrewcooke 15y ago
please can you explain what value = 5 "The value is " + 5 is supposed to do? at the moment i can't work out why it would be frustrating to be unable to type something that looks like a syntax error... (i'm assuming it has some meaning in a language i don't know, which i guess would mean php). edit: what does "say" mean in the reply below? print? evaluate? and does "later" mean in another statement? or replacing what was before?
- Miky 15y ago
  He means that he can't say “value = 5” and then later say “"the value is " + 5”.
- stickfigure 15y ago
  The problem is that his two lines of code got joined by HN's formatter (which needs two newlines for a real line break). Presumably his desired message was: value = 5 "The value is " + 5
phaedryx 15y ago
I see that as a feature. It looks like you're saying "I want to add numbers and letters together and Ruby complains." If you really want that value in your string, why not use "The value is #{value}"
- andos 15y ago
  Maybe they're afraid the translation team will be overly grateful?
  - paragraft 15y ago
    Appending doesn't work for translation: not all languages will have the object at the end of the sentence. Better to stick with format strings.
    - andos 15y ago
      That's what I meant...
rat 15y ago
"r#{5}" or in actual use something like "I have #{me.num_of_children}\n" much better then Auto conversion In python "I have " + str(me.num_of_sons) + "and " + str(me.num_of_daughters) +"\n" does get annoying

by seasoup 15y ago

msy 15y ago

Just use inline implicit conversion: "r #{5+3/2}"

jamesbritt 15y ago
It's a lot more typing. :) If one really wanted that kind of behavior (and not getting errors when trying to add strings and number) you could make it so: class String def +(o) warn "You are adding a #{o.class} to a string." unless o.is_a? String "#{self}#{o}" end end for example. Whether this leads to other issues is left as an exercise for the reader and whomever ends up maintaining the reader's code.

andrewcooke 15y ago

please can you explain what value = 5 "The value is " + 5 is supposed to do? at the moment i can't work out why it would be frustrating to be unable to type something that looks like a syntax error... (i'm assuming it has some meaning in a language i don't know, which i guess would mean php). edit: what does "say" mean in the reply below? print? evaluate? and does "later" mean in another statement? or replacing what was before?

Miky 15y ago
He means that he can't say “value = 5” and then later say “"the value is " + 5”.
stickfigure 15y ago
The problem is that his two lines of code got joined by HN's formatter (which needs two newlines for a real line break). Presumably his desired message was: value = 5 "The value is " + 5

phaedryx 15y ago

I see that as a feature. It looks like you're saying "I want to add numbers and letters together and Ruby complains." If you really want that value in your string, why not use "The value is #{value}"

andos 15y ago
Maybe they're afraid the translation team will be overly grateful?
- paragraft 15y ago
  Appending doesn't work for translation: not all languages will have the object at the end of the sentence. Better to stick with format strings.
  - andos 15y ago
    That's what I meant...

rat 15y ago

"r#{5}" or in actual use something like "I have #{me.num_of_children}\n" much better then Auto conversion In python "I have " + str(me.num_of_sons) + "and " + str(me.num_of_daughters) +"\n" does get annoying