Beginner question

Hi All,
I'm taking programming lessons on Code academy, and I am stuck on the
symbols lesson.
The instructions say :

We have an array of strings we'd like to later use as hash keys, but
we'd rather they be symbols.

Create a new array, symbols.
Use .each to iterate over the strings array and convert each string to a
symbol, adding those symbols to symbols.

They give you :

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

# Add your code below!

Could someone please help me and explain to me why the code is written
the way it is?

Much thanks!

···

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

So you want to take:

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

... and create from it:

symbols = [:HTML, :CSS, :JavaScript, :Python, :Ruby]

The Array#each method [1] allows you to do something with each member of strings, and the String#to_sym [2] method allows you to create a symbol from a string. So roughly:

make a new array called symbols
for each entry in strings, create a corresponding symbol, and put it in your new symbols array.

Hope that helps!

Sam

[1] Class: Array (Ruby 2.1.1)
[2] Class: String (Ruby 2.1.1)

···

On 25/02/14 16:16, Mei Chen wrote:

Hi All,
I'm taking programming lessons on Code academy, and I am stuck on the
symbols lesson.
The instructions say :

We have an array of strings we'd like to later use as hash keys, but
we'd rather they be symbols.

Create a new array, symbols.
Use .each to iterate over the strings array and convert each string to a
symbol, adding those symbols to symbols.

They give you :

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

# Add your code below!

Could someone please help me and explain to me why the code is written
the way it is?

Much thanks!

Just wanted to thank everyone who replies to these emails. I learned
Ruby via forums and email lists, so I greatly appreciate your
generosity.

Best Regards,
Andrew

···

On Feb 24, 2014, at 7:59 PM, Sam Duncan <sduncan@wetafx.co.nz> wrote:

So you want to take:

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

... and create from it:

symbols = [:HTML, :CSS, :JavaScript, :Python, :Ruby]

The Array#each method [1] allows you to do something with each member of strings, and the String#to_sym [2] method allows you to create a symbol from a string. So roughly:

make a new array called symbols
for each entry in strings, create a corresponding symbol, and put it in your new symbols array.

Hope that helps!

Sam

[1] Class: Array (Ruby 2.1.1)
[2] Class: String (Ruby 2.1.1)

On 25/02/14 16:16, Mei Chen wrote:
Hi All,
I'm taking programming lessons on Code academy, and I am stuck on the
symbols lesson.
The instructions say :

We have an array of strings we'd like to later use as hash keys, but
we'd rather they be symbols.

Create a new array, symbols.
Use .each to iterate over the strings array and convert each string to a
symbol, adding those symbols to symbols.

They give you :

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

# Add your code below!

Could someone please help me and explain to me why the code is written
the way it is?

Much thanks!