Overview

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to use the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB) to write Ruby programs; execute Ruby code with a Ruby interpreter using Ruby (.rb) files; implement variables, literals, and constants in Ruby programs; use standard data types, such as numbers, Booleans, and strings, in Ruby programs; execute basic arithmetic operations on integer and floating-point numbers, implement string concatenation and interpolation in Ruby programs.

This chapter introduces the basics of Ruby and serves as a firm foundation to build the complex code that you will encounter later in the book.

Ruby is a dynamic, interpreted, object-oriented programming language developed by Yukihiro ("Matz") Matsumoto at some point in the mid-1990s, with its first stable release in 1995. According to the creator of Ruby, it is highly influenced by Perl, Smalltalk, Ada, and Lisp. The influence of these languages on Ruby allows it to embrace various programming paradigms, such as functional, object-oriented, and imperative, with dynamic typing (referred to as duck typing in popular culture) and automatic memory management.

Being an interpreted scripting language, Ruby has the ability to make system calls directly, and has a long list of useful string operations where variable declaration and variable type are not required. Ruby wholly embraces object-oriented programming because everything in Ruby is an object. Ruby has a long list of keywords that make many operations a piece of cake. This means you can do more with less code.

Whether you are a newbie to the world of programming, or an experienced developer in other languages who is tired of the compilation processes, extra declarations, and the keywords of other languages, Ruby will be a revelation from the point of view of your productivity.

With all these characteristics, Ruby gives developers an enriching experience, making programming productive and fun. In addition to Ruby being a fantastic programming language, the Ruby community is also very friendly and supportive.

Key Features of Ruby

A number of key features of the Ruby language make it really unique in terms of working with it. It has very neatly assimilated the best features of many programming languages. Here are a few features of Ruby that make it a delight to program with:

• Object-oriented
• Interpreted language
• Duck typing and dynamic typing
• Multi-paradigm language
• Reflection
• Metaprogramming
  

Figure 1.1: Key features of Ruby

Object-Oriented

Ruby is thoroughly object-oriented, and objects are the basic building block of a Ruby program. Every value in Ruby is an object, even data types such as strings, numbers, and Booleans: everything is an object. This means that every object is part of a class that gives access to a wide range of methods to do incredible things. Each class is also an object in Ruby. Here's an example:

class Fruit
 #code
end

The preceding code defines the Fruit class. The following code shows that two new objects, fruit1 and fruit2, are derived from the Fruit class:

fruit1 = Fruit.new
fruit2 = Fruit.new

Interpreted Language

Ruby is an interpreted language, meaning that it's ready to run the program as soon as you finish typing. Unlike programming languages such as C++, Java, and Objective-C, which require code to be compiled before running, this is not the case with Ruby. Look at this example:

print "Hello World"

This code will immediately print Hello World, as follows:

Hello World

Duck Typing and Dynamic Typing

Dynamic typing means a variable can refer to objects of various types when the program is executed. There is no type checking in Ruby. Duck typing is a principle that denotes that an object is based on the value assigned to it rather than the type of variable. The underlying rule here is: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck." Here's an example:

x= [:a, :b, :c]
x.map(&:to_s) # => ['a', 'b', 'c']

The preceding example illustrates how the x variable responds to map and returns the expected object. This means that the x variable here is considered an array.

Multi-paradigm Language

While languages are focused on one type of programming paradigm, besides being object-oriented, Ruby also allows procedural and functional styles of programming. The procedural paradigm refers to an instance where procedure calls are interpreted as function calls. However, functions do not exist in Ruby, and, therefore, methods can be created outside classes. Look at this example:

self # => main
def method1
  "John is developing a program."
end
def method2
  "Jane is developing another program."
end
method1 # => "John is developing a program."
method2 # => "Jane is developing another program."

Here, method1 and method2 are defined outside the classes; however, they are still a part of the main object.

Additionally, Ruby also features the functional style of programming, meaning it largely revolves around functions. Consider the following example:

def ruby_method(obj)
  obj - 1
end
print ruby_method(5)
=> 4

Here, the ruby_method always stores the result of the object passed as an argument, subtracting 1.

Reflection

Reflection in Ruby makes it very easy to understand what's happening at runtime because you can get a lot of information, such as class methods, inheritance hierarchies, and all the living objects in your running program. Here's an example:

class Box
  def hello
    "hello"
  end
end
# without reflection
obj = Box.new
obj.hello
# with reflection
class_name = "Box"
method_name = :hello
obj = Object.const_get(class_name).new
obj.send method_name

This shows that we can inspect every element of the code.

Metaprogramming

Ruby supports metaprogramming, which is a technique that helps you to write code that creates code on its own. This means it is able to create methods and classes dynamically. With metaprogramming, you can write methods and classes at runtime, which helps us to maintain a Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) and maintainable code base. Here's an example:

['one', 'two', 'three'].each do |num|
  define_method(num) do
    num.upcase
  end
end
one # => "ONE"
two # => "TWO"
three # => "THREE"

The preceding code shows that we can make changes to the core Array class at runtime and modify it as required.

The easiest way to start playing around with Ruby is by using IRB, where I stands for Interactive and RB stand for the .rb extension of the Ruby programming files. IRB is a command-line interpreter and is also known as a REPL tool in Ruby, which means Read, Eval, Print, and Loop, and was inspired by Smalltalk. IRB is very useful for quick experiments, exploring Ruby, and testing fragments of code quickly.

IRB comes out of the box with Ruby, and you can access it using the irb command from the Terminal:

1. Go to the Terminal (or Command Prompt) and type the following command:

   $ irb 
   >_ 

2. Once the shell is open, you can type commands and get instant results. Try a simple puts command in Ruby using IRB:

   puts "Hello World"

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.2: Output for "Hello World"

Note

puts or p is used to print any string or value of a variable that follows puts or p.

Let's do some addition with the Interactive Ruby Shell:

1. Go to the IRB shell.
2. Type the following command:

   17 + 13

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.3: Addition output on irb

Note

You can use IRB or any IDE to complete the exercises/activities in this book.

Exercise 1.01: Creating and Assigning Variables

In this exercise, we will create a variable, assign an operation to it, and print it. Let's assign the calculation in the previous example to a variable, such as the number of students, and print it in IRB:

1. Go to the IRB shell or the IDE of your choice.
2. Type the following code:

   number_of_students = 17 + 13

   You should get the sum of 17 and 13 in the output.

3. Next, we print the value carried by the number_of_students variable:

   puts number_of_students

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.4: Output for assigning variables

Note

The Ruby variable stores the value assigned to a variable in one IRB session, as seen here with number_of_students.

Before we start the next exercise, please note that data types in Ruby symbolize various types of data, such as strings, numbers, decimal numbers, and text. All of these data types are based on classes; for example, string is an object of the String class, since Ruby is an object-oriented language. We will discuss a variety of data types in Ruby later in this chapter.

Exercise 1.02: Assigning a Variable of One Data Type to a Different Type

In this exercise, we will assign a string value to a variable of the integer data type. It is not necessary that a variable, once assigned, stays the same type forever. Let's assign a variable that holds an integer and another variable that has a string value:

1. Continue from the previous example (if you are starting here, please complete Exercise 1.01, Creating and Assigning Variables).
2. Type the following code:

   number_of_students

   This should give you an output of 30 as this was the value assigned in the previous exercise.

   Next, we assign a different value to the number_of_students variable:

   number_of_students = "not enough for a session"
   => "not enough for a session"

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.5: The output for variables assigned to a different data type

We can simply change the data type of a variable with the inbuilt Ruby methods. For example, to convert an integer to a string, we can use .to_s, and we can convert a string to an integer with .to_i.

We will study Ruby methods in detail in the later sections of this chapter.

Exercise 1.03: Getting the Type of a Variable

In this exercise, we will get information about the data type of a variable. Continuing on from the previous exercise, we can get a lot of information about the variable. First, let's see from which class the variable is derived. This can be achieved using the dot (.) operator on the variable itself.

1. Continue from the previous example (if you are starting here, please complete Exercises 1.01, Creating and Assigning Variables and 1.02, Assigning a Variable of One Data Type to a Different Type).
2. Now, we will try to identify the data type of our number_of_students variable using .class:

   number_of_students.class

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.6: Output of the data type of a variable

   .class tells us about the class that the variable belongs to.

3. The same can be achieved using the :: operator:

   number_of_students::class

In Ruby, the . and :: operators almost work in the same way. There is no major difference between :: and . when calling static methods. However, you may use the :: operator to access constants and other name-spaced things, where using the dot (.) operator is not possible. Aesthetically, . operator is preferable to :: operator.

Getting the Details of the Public Methods of an Object

We will now see various public methods that are available for an object by default from Ruby. Everything in Ruby is an object; the class itself is an object of Class. We can then check what interfaces are available for an object. Let's now see what public methods are associated with this object:

number_of_students.public_methods

The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.7: Output for public methods

You can use all of the preceding public methods on this object to execute various operations and manipulate the value set in the object. If you look closely, some of the methods are self-explanatory, such as upcase, and downcase (we will discuss individual data types and their class later in this chapter).

Running Ruby Code from Ruby Files

In the previous section, we used IRB to execute some code snippets from the Terminal. But that's not usually the case when you write Ruby code. Whether you use a framework or run a standalone Ruby code, you would keep your code inside a Ruby file, which, in layman's terms, is a file with the .rb extension.

Let's try creating a hello_world.rb file and place some Ruby code in it. You can use your choice of IDE or simply use the Terminal.

1. Create a new file and add the following code to it:

   puts "***"
   puts  "*****"
   puts  "*******"
   puts  "Hello World"
   puts  "*******"
   puts  "*****"
   puts  "***"

2. Save this file in the desired location with the .rb extension. For example, save it as hello_world.rb.
3. To execute this code, fire up your Terminal.
4. Run the following command from root where your Ruby file is saved:

   $ ruby hello_world.rb

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.8: Output of the hello world program

So far, we have learned how to print any value from a variable. Now that we know how to write and execute a code from a Ruby file, let's up the ante a bit by getting user input.

Exercise 1.04: Getting User Input in a Ruby Program

In this exercise, we will get the user to input some numerical data and perform a simple addition. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open your choice of IDE or the Terminal application.
2. Create a new file.
3. Add the following code to it. We use puts to print a string. The gets function is used to allow the input data to be stored in the num variable:

   puts  "Please enter a number to added to 5"
   num = gets
   sum = 5 + num.to_i
   puts  "The result is"
   puts sum

   We have converted the num variable explicitly to an integer using the built-in to_i method.

4. Save the file as sum.rb.
5. Open the Terminal and execute the following code:

   $ ruby sum.rb

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.9: Output for user input in Ruby

By using the gets method, we were able to capture input from the user. When you executed the Ruby file, the cursor stopped for the input. The same input, as captured by the gets method, was used and added to 5.

Alternatively, there is a method called gets.chomp that removes the trailing line character from a string. Typically, the gets method will input the entire string, including the line break character. gets.chomp will remove line break characters from strings.

The three major data types used in Ruby are as follows:

• Number
• String
• Boolean

We shall look at each of these data types in detail in this section.

Number

Numbers in Ruby are objects that derive from the Numeric class. Let's look at the class hierarchy for various number types:

Figure 1.10: Number class hierarchy

Of all of these, two of the most commonly used number types are integer and float, and there are a number of methods associated with both integer and floating-point numbers. Let's take a look at them one by one.

In Ruby, integers are represented by two classes: Fixnum and Bignum:

Figure 1.11: Integer types

Both of them are inherited by the Integer class. As the name suggests, the Bignum class represents big numbers, and Fixnum is used to represent small numbers. Ruby manages the conversion between the two automatically. For example, if the result of an operation of two Fixnum numbers is outside the Fixnum range, it's converted to Bignum. From Ruby 2.4 onward, Ruby has unified these classes and automatically uses the Fixnum class for small numbers and Bignum for large numbers.

Exercise 1.05: Performing Common Integer Operations

In this exercise, we will perform common mathematical operations such as addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and division (/) in Ruby:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Type the following code:

   1 + 2

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.12: Output for the addition operator

4. Perform subtraction using the - operator:

   3 - 1

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.13: Output for the subtraction operator

5. Perform multiplication using the * operator:

   3 * 3

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.14: Output for the multiplication operator

6. Perform division using the / operator:

   10 / 2

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.15: Output for the division operator

You may ask yourself how is the principle of BODMAS (Bracket, Open, Division, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction) managed by Ruby automatically. Ruby follows an order of precedence for operators, which defines the order in which the operators will take priority in any equation. We will learn about precedence in Chapter 3, Program Workflow.

Note

You can also divide up long integers by separating them with an underscore. For example, 121_334 will be read in Ruby as 121334

Exercise 1.06: Using Common Integer Methods to Perform Complex Arithmetic

In this exercise, we will try some common integer methods to make complex operations trivial. We will perform operations to calculate the next and previous numbers and calculate the Least Common Multiple (LCM) and Greatest Common Denominator (GCD) using built-in methods.

LCM is a method that finds the smallest multiple common to any two or more numbers, whereas GCD finds the largest divisor common to two or more numbers.

The following steps should help you with the solution:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Type the following code. .next will provide the next number:

   2.next

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.16: Output for the next number

4. Next, we will calculate the previous number using .pred:

   2.pred

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.17: Output for the previous number

5. Then we calculate the LCM of 2 and 3 using .lcm:

   2.lcm(3)

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.18: Output for the LCM of 2 and 3

6. We also calculate the GCD of 2 and 3 using .gcd:

   2.gcd(3)

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.19: Output for the GCD of 2 and 3

Most of these methods are self-explanatory, but let's go through each of them:

• .next provides the next integer value.
• .pred provides the preceding integer value.
• .lcm gives us the least common multiple of the integer to which the method is applied and the value passed.
• .gcd provides the greatest common divisor of the integer to which the method is applied and the value passed.

There are a number of methods available for the integer class, which you can play around with. Simply check them by using .methods on the integer.

Go to the Terminal. Type irb to enter the IRB and type the following code:

2.methods

The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.20: Available methods in Ruby

Note

To know more about all the methods and operations they can perform, refer to the official documentation at https://packt.live/2nc962i.

Floating-Point Numbers

Next, let's look into floating-point numbers. Floats are essentially imprecise decimal numbers in Ruby; we use the Float class with 15 digits of precision.

There are two ways to write floating-point numbers:

• 1.121 – with a decimal point
• 1.0e3 – adding an exponent provided there is one number before and after the decimal point

Exercise 1.07: Performing Common Operations for Floating-Point Numbers

In this exercise, we will try some common floating-point methods to make complex operations easy. We will also learn how to calculate the previous and next decimal number, as well as how to round off a decimal number completely or up to a certain decimal point:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Type the following code. Firstly, we have assigned our floating-point value to a num variable and applied various methods to it:

   num = 2.339
   num.ceil
   num.floor

   .ceil returns the closest next integer, and .floor returns the closest previous integer.

4. Then we have .next_float. This returns the next floating-point value, which is an increment in the last digit of the number to 15 decimal places. Similarly, .prev_float returns the previous floating point value to 15 decimal places:

   num.next_float
   num.prev_float

5. Next, we have .round, which removes the values after the decimal. If the value after the decimal point is less than 5, you get the previous integer, and if it is over 5, you get the next integer. When we pass a number to .round(2), we get a floating-point value to two decimal places:

   num.round
   num.round(2)

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.21: Output for floating-point number operations

There are a number of methods available for the Float class, which you can play around with. Simply check them against .methods on any integer:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Type the following Ruby code:

   2.15.methods

The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.22: Methods for the Float class

Note

To find out more about all the methods and the operations they can perform, refer to the official documentation at https://packt.live/2o7rYzS.

String

Strings in Ruby are derived from the String class, and there are over 100 methods to manipulate and operate on strings. This is perhaps because, in programming, a lot revolves around strings, and Ruby reduces the headache by managing a lot out of the box.

By default, Ruby comes with UTF-8 encoding, but this can be changed by placing a special comment at the top of a file:

# encoding: us-ascii
puts "Hello".encoding
output:
ruby strings.rb
#<Encoding:US-ASCII>

Note

If you remove the comment, by default, it will be UTF-8.

There are various ways to write strings in Ruby. These are some of the most common ones:

• We can simply place anything between single quotes ('') and it becomes a string:

  'Ruby Fundamentals'
   => "Ruby Fundamentals"

• In order to keep the single quote with the letters, we can escape it using the backslash character (\):

  '\'Ruby Fundamentals\''
   => "'Ruby Fundamentals'"

• We can also use %q, as shown in the following examples, and place the required string in a delimiter, which can be a bracket, curly brackets, or something else:

  %q('Ruby' Fundamentals)
   => "'Ruby' Fundamentals"
  %q['Ruby' Fundamentals]
   => "'Ruby' Fundamentals"
  %q{'Ruby' Fundamentals}
   => "'Ruby' Fundamentals"
  %q<'Ruby' Fundamentals>
   => "'Ruby' Fundamentals"

• We can also use double quotes (""), which is the cleanest way to define a string.

  "'Ruby' Fundamentals"
   => "'Ruby' Fundamentals"

  The output of all the preceding code should be as follows:

Figure 1.23: Ways to write strings in Ruby

Exercise 1.08: Using Common String Methods

In this exercise, we will perform a number of common operations on a string. We will first assign a string to a variable, then find its size and length, and then change the case of the String value. We will then capitalize the string. All this will be done using the String class' built-in methods. Lastly, we will discuss the bang (!) operator and see how adding it impacts the results:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Enter the following code to define the string:

   title = "ruby fundamentals"

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.24: Output for string definition

   Here, we are using the ruby fundamentals value for the title variable on which all the following operations will be executed.

4. Next, we check the number of characters in this string, including white spaces, using .size:

   title.size

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.25: Character count of a string

5. Then, we also check the number of characters in this string, including white spaces, using .length:

   title.length

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.26: String length calculation

   .length is the same as size, but it is more meaningful in certain situations. Mostly, it is a matter of preference. Some developers prefer using .size for large collections of data, such as arrays, and hashes, and .length for smaller collections of data, such as strings.

6. Next, we change the case of the string characters to uppercase using .upcase:

   title.upcase

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.27: Uppercase string characters

7. Similarly, we can change the casing to lowercase using .downcase:

   title.downcase

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.28: Lowercase string characters

8. We can also capitalize the first character of the string using .capitalize:

   title.capitalize

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.29: Capitalized string characters

   Note that even after the operations are applied on the string, the original string object remains the same:

   title

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.30: Original string object

9. Let's now try the bang method. Bang methods end with an exclamation mark (!), and we can use them to modify the original object with the result of the operation. Since the bang method can permanently modify the receiver (the original value), it should be used carefully:

   title.capitalize!
   title

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.31: Bang operation on a string

There are other operations as well that we can perform on strings, a common one being concatenation.

Exercise 1.09: Performing String Concatenation

In this exercise, we will be concatenating two string values that are assigned to different variables. We will solve the same problem in three ways:

• Using the + operator
• Using the .concat method
• Using the << operator

The following steps will help you to perform the exercise:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Enter the following code. We first define the strings as var1 and var2:

   var1 = "Ruby"
   var2 = "Fundamentals"

4. Next, we concatenate the two strings using whitespace:

   title = var1 + ' ' + var2

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.32: Output using whitespace

   To add a space between var1 and var2 in the final result, you can do this by chain two + operators with a whitespace in-between.

5. We can also do the same with the .concat method and modify the Ruby code:

   title = var1.concat(var2)

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.33: Output using the .concat method

6. We can also concatenate the strings using the << operator:

   title = ""
   var1 = "Ruby"
   title << var1
   title << " "
   var2 = "Fundamentals"
   title << var2

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.34: Concatenation using the << operator

Another way of accomplishing string manipulation is by using a technique called string interpolation. This works much more elegantly than the previous methods and allows you to combine the elements of different types together in a string. With string interpolation, we can combine strings and embed Ruby expressions in a string.

Exercise 1.10: Performing String Interpolation

In this exercise, we will use the title variable that contains a value for Ruby Fundamentals and interpolate it in a sentence:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Define the string:

   title = "Ruby Fundamentals"
   puts "My Favorite Ruby book is #{title}"

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.35: String interpolation

4. We can also perform operations with string interpolation, for example, addition within a string:

   puts "My Favorite Ruby book is #{title} and I am using it for last #{10+30} days"

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.36: Addition operation in string interpolation

This is how we carry out addition operations with string interpolation.

Exercise 1.11: Extracting and Searching a Substring from a String

To extract certain characters from a string, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Define the string and then extract the characters, starting from the eighth position in an index to the second position from it:

   quote = "Just Do IT"
   quote[8,2]

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.37: Extracting characters from a string

   Thus, we have extracted characters, starting from the eighth position in an index to the second position from it, and hence get the characters IT.

4. Now, we will use string methods that can check whether a certain character, or group of characters, exists in a string object:

   quote = "Just Do IT"
   quote.include?("Just")
   quote.include?("just")

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.38: Searching a substring from a string

Here, the characters must be together and in exactly the same order.

Exercise 1.12: Replacing Part of a String with Another String

In this exercise, we will replace the word Java in the sentence "My favorite book is Java Fundamentals" with the word Ruby. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Store the sentence My favorite book is Java Fundamentals in title:

   title = "My favorite book is Java Fundamentals"

4. Type the following code, which replaces the word Java with Ruby in title:

   title["Java"] = "Ruby"

5. Print title to confirm the change:

   title

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.39: Replacing string characters

We have now easily updated the specific value of the string object in the title variable.

If the original title was My favorite Java book is Java Fundamentals, we have Java repeated twice. In this case, only the first instance of Java would be replaced. The output would be My Favorite Ruby book is Java Fundamentals. This is where the gsub method comes into play. It is used to globally substitute a character, or set of characters, with another.

Exercise 1.13: Replacing All the Values inside a String Using gsub

In this exercise, we will use the gsub method to replace all the instances of Java with Ruby in a sentence:

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Define the string value and apply the gsub method as follows:

   title = "My Favorite Java book is Java Fundamentals"
   title.gsub("Java", "Ruby")

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.40: Using the gsub method to replace characters in a string

This way, we can easily replace the same values across the object using gsub. This is very handy when we have to replace one character that is repeated and acts as noise in data with something meaningful.

Exercise 1.14: Splitting a String and Joining a String

In Ruby, we can split a string, which gives the result in an array (we will learn about arrays in the next chapter). In this exercise, we are going to split a string of words into an array of words.

1. Go to the Terminal.
2. Type irb to enter the IRB.
3. Define the string and use the .split method to divide the string into an array of words:

   title = "My Favorite book is Ruby Fundamentals"
   title.split

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.41: Splitting a string

4. Use the split method to separate values in a string:

   months = "Jan; Feb; Mar"
   months.split(';')

   The output should be as follows:

   

   Figure 1.42: Splitting a string using a unique character

5. Join the array values in a string:

   data = ["My", "Favorite", "book", "is", "Ruby", "Fundamentals"]
   data.join

   The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.43: Joining arrays to form a string

Thus, we have successfully used data.join to bring together values in a string.

The string class has several methods. You can use the following code to check the methods available in the string class:

"abc".methods

It lists all the methods that are present in the string class:

Figure 1.44: String methods

Note

To find out more about all the methods and the operations they can perform, refer to the official documentation at https://packt.live/2pDVtK5.

Activity 1.01: Generating Email Addresses Using Ruby

Imagine you have to write a Ruby program for a company (with the rubyprograms.com domain), which will generate a roster of email IDs of the company's employees. For this, we just need to accept user input in the form of the first name and last name of each employee and place them in an email format, which means adding an @ symbol between the two.

Observe the following steps to complete the activity:

1. Create variables to accept the first names and last names of the individuals.
2. Use gets.chomp to accept string input from users.
3. Combine the first name and last name with the domain name and print the result.

   The expected output is as follows:

Figure 1.45: Output for email address generation

Note

The solution for this activity can be found via this link.

Boolean

Unlike other languages, Ruby does not have a Boolean type, but it has true and false Boolean values, which are essentially instances of the TrueClass and the FalseClass, respectively. These are singleton instances, which means that you can't create other instances of these classes.

Let's test this with an example:

a = nil
 => nil
a.nil?
 => true

The output should be as follows:

Figure 1.46: True and false classes

You get Boolean values when you check whether the a variable is nil.

We will learn more about the Boolean data type in Chapter 3, Controlling Program Flow.

Activity 1.02: Calculating the Area and Perimeter of a Candy Manufacturing Plant

In this activity, we will be using radius as the input to calculate the area and perimeter of a candy manufacturing plant.

Follow these steps to complete the activity:

1. Go to the Terminal and use irb to enter the IRB.
2. Define the variables for radius, perimeter, and area.
3. Calculate the value received from user input stored in the radius variable and print the results for area and perimeter.

   The expected output is as follows:

Figure 1.47: Output for area and perimeter

Note

The solution for this activity can be found via this link.

In this chapter, we learned about the fundamentals of Ruby and its key features. We started with the history of Ruby and the key programming paradigms the language supports that make it unique and powerful at the same time. We then learned about using Ruby code with the IRB and also learned how to write code in Ruby files and execute it. Next, we delved into the standard data types in Ruby, which are number, Boolean, and string. Here, we implemented various operations on variables along with commonly used string operations, such as string concatenation and interpolation.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to work with data structures such as arrays and hashes. We will explore the details of the various powerful methods associated with them, and we will also learn how to create our own Ruby methods and call them, which is the bedrock of day-to-day programming with Ruby.