Newb question: Printing a class.

[Brian A.]

Hello, Im new to the forum and new to Ruby, but I have
programmed before. Im reading through this tutorial as my first venture
into Ruby: http://www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/ruby/0.3/index.html

I apologize if this is the wrong forum or I break any forum rules in
this post, please let me know if I do!

I am using Eclipse + RDT (http://rubyeclipse.sourceforge.net/) for my
IDE.

I am currently on this page of the tutorial
(http://www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/ruby/0.3/chp_04/classes2.html) and I
am having a performing the exercise at the bottom of the page.

Here is the code I have so far:

========================================================================
class Address
attr_accessor :street, :city, :state, :zip
def initialize
@street = @city = @state = @zip = ""
end

def to_s
@street + "\n" + \
@city + "\n" + \
@state + ", " + @zip
end
end

class Person
attr_accessor :first_name, :email
attr_accessor :last_name, :address
def initialize
@first_name = @last_name = @email = ""
@address = Address.new
end

def full_name
@first_name + " " + @last_name
end

def to_s
@first_name + " " + @last_name + "\n" + \
@email + "\n"
end
end

sandy_addr = Address.new
sandy_addr.street = "324 Campus Dr."
sandy_addr.city = "College Park"
sandy_addr.state = "CO"
sandy_addr.zip = "55555"

sandy = Person.new
sandy.first_name = "Sandy"
sandy.last_name = "Kohh"
sandy.address = sandy_addr
========================================================================

If I then run: 'puts sandy.address' it correctly outputs the address.
This bit of code was given to me in the tutorial. However if I type
'puts sandy.person' I get the following error message:
'test_temp1.rb:43: undefined method `person' for #<Person:0x2f2324c>
(NoMethodError)'

I am lost because the def to_s inside the Person class looks exactly
like the def to_s in the Address class. What am I missing or doing
wrong? Thanks in advance!

-Brian

 

[Shashank Agarwal]

This bit of code was given to me in the tutorial. However if I type
'puts sandy.person' I get the following error message:
'test_temp1.rb:43: undefined method `person' for #<Person:0x2f2324c>
(NoMethodError)'

This is because you are asking it to find the return value of method
'person', but such a method does not exist. With sandy.address, you
asked for the return value of method 'address'. This basically was
returning the object 'address' for sandy. To get the to_s method in
person, just put -

puts sandy

That should work (not tested).

 

[Matthias Reitinger]

Hello Brian,

If I then run: 'puts sandy.address' it correctly outputs the address.
This bit of code was given to me in the tutorial. However if I type
'puts sandy.person' I get the following error message:
'test_temp1.rb:43: undefined method `person' for #<Person:0x2f2324c>
(NoMethodError)'

There is no method called `person` in your Person class. If you want to
print the string representation of `sandy`, just do a `puts sandy`.

Regards,
Matthias

 

[Brian A.]

puts sandy

Thank you both that did work, but opened a new issue for me.

When I change the def to_s within the Person class to this (adding the
@address):

========================================================================
def to_s
@first_name + " " + @last_name + "\n" + \
@email + "\n"
@address
end
========================================================================

I get this "#<Person:0x2b3340c>", is this because the Person class makes
reference to the Address class, and its the address class has its own
to_s that prints? Should I move the @street + "\n" + \, ...etc to the
Person class from the Address class?


If I change the def a little to this:

========================================================================
def to_s
@first_name + " " + @last_name + "\n" + \
@email + "\n"
@address + "\n"
end
========================================================================

I get a different error message:
"test_temp1.rb:25:in `to_s': undefined method `+' for
#<Address:0x3413f68> (NoMethodError)
from test_temp1.rb:41:in `puts'
from test_temp1.rb:41"

Thanks!

 

[Adam Shelly]

Thank you both that did work, but opened a new issue for me.

When I change the def to_s within the Person class to this (adding the
@address):

========================================================================
def to_s
@first_name + " " + @last_name + "\n" + \
@email + "\n"
@address
end
========================================================================

I get this "#<Person:0x2b3340c>", is this because the Person class makes
reference to the Address class, and its the address class has its own
to_s that prints? Should I move the @street + "\n" + \, ...etc to the
Person class from the Address class?

You are right, the Address class does have its own #to_s. The issue
here is that when you type @address, you are not automatically calling
it. You need to do @address.to_s. (The puts method does
automatically call #to_s on its arguments, but it is not recursive).

Also, you probably want a '+' after the @email + "\n". Methods return
the value of the last line, so without you will only return the
address, not the name and email from the previous lines.

-Adam

 

[Brian A.]

You are right, the Address class does have its own #to_s. The issue
here is that when you type @address, you are not automatically calling
it. You need to do @address.to_s. (The puts method does
automatically call #to_s on its arguments, but it is not recursive).

Also, you probably want a '+' after the @email + "\n". Methods return
the value of the last line, so without you will only return the
address, not the name and email from the previous lines.

-Adam

Thank you, that worked great!