Tip du jour: no need to chomp before to_i

[David A. Black]

Hi --

Very minor point, but in case it's useful:

n = gets.chomp.to_i

does the same thing as:

n = gets.to_i

because to_i doesn't do anything with the trailing newline anyway.

This is even the case if you use the fussier Integer method. Integer
is fussier in the sense that it doesn't like non-numeric strings:

"123abc".to_i => 123
Integer("123abc") => error

But it doesn't mind whitespace:

Integer("\t \n 123\n ") => 123

so you can do Integer(gets) without chomping.

I can't think of any exceptions or weird edge cases, but if you can,
please report them


David

--
The Ruby training with D. Black, G. Brown, J.McAnally
Compleat Jan 22-23, 2010, Tampa, FL
Rubyist http://www.thecompleatrubyist.com

David A. Black/Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)

 

[Brian Candler]

But it doesn't mind whitespace:

Integer("\t \n 123\n ") => 123

(leading and trailing whitespace that is)

Beware that Integer() as well as being fussier, also implements special
treatment of leading 0 (octal) and 0x (hex).
=> 291

 

[Robert Klemme]

(leading and trailing whitespace that is)

Beware that Integer() as well as being fussier, also implements special
treatment of leading 0 (octal) and 0x (hex).

=3D> 291

I have extended your test list a bit

Ruby version 1.9.1
irb(main):001:0> %w{123 0123 0x123 0b111}.each {|s| p s, s.to_i, Integer(s)=
}
"123"
123
123
"0123"
123
83
"0x123"
0
291
"0b111"
0
7
=3D> ["123", "0123", "0x123", "0b111"]

Basically Integer applies the same semantics as the Ruby parser while
#to_i just grabs the first sequence of digits, treats it as a decimal
number and turns it into an int. If there is no such sequence it falls
back to 0.

Kind regards

rober


--=20
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/

 

[Simon Krahnke]

Basically Integer applies the same semantics as the Ruby parser while
#to_i just grabs the first sequence of digits, treats it as a decimal
number and turns it into an int. If there is no such sequence it falls
back to 0.

A little correction: to_i is passed the radix, which by default is 10.

It will return zero if the first character is not the set of digits for
that radix, otherwise it will turn the run of digits at the front of the
string into an integer according to the radix.

mfg, simon .... l

 

[Robert Klemme]

A little correction: to_i is passed the radix, which by default is 10.

Thanks for correcting me!

It will return zero if the first character is not the set of digits for
that radix, otherwise it will turn the run of digits at the front of the
string into an integer according to the radix.

You meant to say "the first _non whitespace_ character".

Cheers

robert

 

[Simon Krahnke]

Thanks for correcting me!


You meant to say "the first _non whitespace_ character".

True. Whitespace at the start of the string seems to be ignored, but is
a stopper everywhere else.

It was complicated enough the way I wrote it. I looked for the ri
documentation on to_i, but all the standard library ri docs seem to be
gone on my computer, strange.

I suppose the code is like this, only better:

def to_i radix=10
s = 0
s += 1 while self[s,1] == "\s"
(s...length).inject(0) | val, i |
d = self[i,1] # wah!
next val if d == '_'
digit = radix_digit(d, radix)
break val if digit < 0
val *= radix
val += digit
end
end

mfg, simon .... l