4 ms·

I don't really know Ruby, what is the to_s doing in parts = version_string.to_s.split(”.”).map(&:to_i) Is it to_string? Isn't version_string already a

• jimbokun 11mo ago
  Yes, to_s returns the string representation of an object. I think it's a safety measure in case the argument passed in is not a string, but can be turned into a string. Safe to assume that calling "to_s" on a string just returns the string.
• dlisboa 11mo ago
  Ruby is a dynamic language, `version_string` can be anything. The author uses `to_s` to coerce it into a string. There are problems with that: if I pass in an array it'll coerce into `"[1,2,3]".split(".").map(&:to_i)`, which makes no sense.
  • shevy-java 11mo ago
    One could do a conversion e. g. if x.is_a? Array x = x.first Or something like that. Could be one line too: x = x.first if x.is_a? Array
    • dlisboa 11mo ago
      Most times it's better to just accept the dynamic nature of the language rather than do this kind of runtime type checking. You'd have to do this `.is_a?` dance for every type to have it be reliable. Even if you implement an "interface" (duck typing) with `respond_to?(:to_app_version)` you still can't be sure that the return type of this `:to_app_version` is actually a string you can call `split()` on.
• metalliqaz 11mo ago
  it allows you to initialize an AppVersion with an other AppVersion object
  • hashmal 11mo ago
    This is the most relevant use of `to_s` in this class indeed. One could imagine additional methods like: def bump_minor self.class.new(major, minor + 1, patch) end (although I'm not sure why it would be useful in that particular case, it's just an example of how you can build new objects out of existing ones without having to mutate them)
• weaksauce 11mo ago
  it is a string usually but could be called with a single number or some other object that has that method overwritten and it would still do the right thing.
• raincole 11mo ago
  It's trying to make it more 'type tolerant' so it accepts both string and int and perhaps other types that implement `to_s`. It's also a quite bad practice to my eye.
• iamjs 11mo ago
  it could be anything, but virtually everything implements `#to_s`.
  • zahlman 11mo ago
    ... But maybe not in a way that happens to be a good idea in the current context.