How does one get a String representation of an Array (not to_s)?

[junk5]

Hi all

(I know about to_s --- that isn't what this post is about!)

Say I have an array that I create with:

a = [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

At the irb prompt, Ruby replies:

=> [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

So how do I get a String containing "[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]"? Doing a.to_s
gives me "12345", which is not what I want.

I need this for debugging purposes and would rather not have to write
my own array printer. It must be easy, but I can't see which function I
should use.

Thanks in advace,

C

 

[ara.t.howard]

Hi all

(I know about to_s --- that isn't what this post is about!)

Say I have an array that I create with:

a = [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

At the irb prompt, Ruby replies:

=> [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

So how do I get a String containing "[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]"? Doing a.to_s
gives me "12345", which is not what I want.

I need this for debugging purposes and would rather not have to write
my own array printer. It must be easy, but I can't see which function I
should use.

Thanks in advace,

C

inspect

-a

 

[Ross Bamford]

Hi all

(I know about to_s --- that isn't what this post is about!)

Say I have an array that I create with:

a = [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

At the irb prompt, Ruby replies:

=> [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

So how do I get a String containing "[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]"? Doing a.to_s
gives me "12345", which is not what I want.

s = [1,2,[3,4],5].inspect
# => "[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]"

puts s
[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

 

[Robert Klemme]

Hi all

(I know about to_s --- that isn't what this post is about!)

Say I have an array that I create with:

a = [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

At the irb prompt, Ruby replies:

=> [1, 2, [3, 4], 5]

So how do I get a String containing "[1, 2, [3, 4], 5]"? Doing a.to_s
gives me "12345", which is not what I want.

I need this for debugging purposes and would rather not have to write
my own array printer. It must be easy, but I can't see which function
I should use.

Thanks in advace,

C

puts a.inspect

Or just

p a

Kind regards

robert

 

[1337p337]

Hi,

a.inspect is probably what you're looking for. 'p a' will print it
directly to stdout.

Pete

 

[junk5]

Thanks all!