I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
to symbol
manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
and figure it's my
general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
"easy" solution.
With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
it.
I have a string in a variable.
foo = "bobo"
I want to use foo to access an array called bobo. I will have bobo
defined already.
Is there a way to do this?
Take foo and use it to access bobo[2], for example.
I thought about turning foo into a symbol, but that wasn't the way.
And, I think there
should be a way to ask Ruby to return an object via its string name,
but I am
missing the way.
I'm still pretty much a newbie, but my first thought that works is:
eval('bobo')[2]
-Stephen
路路路
On 2/19/07, kenbo <kenneth.moorman@gmail.com> wrote:
I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
to symbol
manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
and figure it's my
general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
"easy" solution.
With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
it.
I have a string in a variable.
foo = "bobo"
I want to use foo to access an array called bobo. I will have bobo
defined already.
Is there a way to do this?
Take foo and use it to access bobo[2], for example.
I thought about turning foo into a symbol, but that wasn't the way.
And, I think there
should be a way to ask Ruby to return an object via its string name,
but I am
missing the way.
eval() might be what you're looking for. You can use eval to return the
array then index in to it. Here's an example from:
irb(main):001:0> awesome_array = %w{ one two three four five }
=> ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]
irb(main):002:0> foo = 'awesome_array'
=> "awesome_array"
irb(main):003:0> puts eval(foo)[1]
two
=> nil
irb(main):004:0>
Hope that helps!
路路路
On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 09:20:13AM +0900, kenbo wrote:
I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
to symbol
manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
and figure it's my
general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
"easy" solution.
With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
it.
I have a string in a variable.
foo = "bobo"
I want to use foo to access an array called bobo. I will have bobo
defined already.
This type of question seems to come up periodically on the list but
I never seem to run into in while coding. I tend to think that in most
(but not all) cases the need to reach for eval indicates some larger
design issue.
In your case, I would ask why you are resorting to using several local
variables that you need to distinguish by name rather than simply using
a hash to organize things?
Thanks for the folks that mentioned eval---I thought of that after the
posting but
assumed that, as in LISP, there might be a better way to accomplish
it
It's nice to see more similarities between LISP and Ruby.
kenny
路路路
On Feb 19, 7:59 pm, Aaron Patterson <aaron_patter...@speakeasy.net> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 09:20:13AM +0900, kenbo wrote:
> I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
> to symbol
> manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
> and figure it's my
> general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
> "easy" solution.
> With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
> it.
> I have astringin a variable.
> foo = "bobo"
> I want to use foo to access anarraycalled bobo. I will have bobo
> defined already.
> Is there a way to do this?
eval() might be what you're looking for. You can use eval to return thearraythen index in to it. Here's an example from:
irb(main):001:0> awesome_array = %w{ one two three four five }
=> ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]
irb(main):002:0> foo = 'awesome_array'
=> "awesome_array"
irb(main):003:0> puts eval(foo)[1]
two
=> nil
irb(main):004:0>
Hope that helps!
--
Aaron Pattersonhttp://tenderlovemaking.com/- Hide quoted text -
On 2/20/07, kenbo <kenneth.moorman@gmail.com> wrote:
On Feb 19, 7:59 pm, Aaron Patterson <aaron_patter...@speakeasy.net> > wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 09:20:13AM +0900, kenbo wrote:
> > I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
> > to symbol
> > manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
> > and figure it's my
> > general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
> > "easy" solution.
>
> > With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
> > it.
>
> > I have astringin a variable.
> > foo = "bobo"
>
> > I want to use foo to access anarraycalled bobo. I will have bobo
> > defined already.
>
> > Is there a way to do this?
>
> eval() might be what you're looking for. You can use eval to return thearraythen index in to it. Here's an example from:
>
> irb(main):001:0> awesome_array = %w{ one two three four five }
> => ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]
> irb(main):002:0> foo = 'awesome_array'
> => "awesome_array"
> irb(main):003:0> puts eval(foo)[1]
> two
> => nil
> irb(main):004:0>
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> --
> Aaron Pattersonhttp://tenderlovemaking.com/- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks for the folks that mentioned eval---I thought of that after the
posting but
assumed that, as in LISP, there might be a better way to accomplish
it
It's nice to see more similarities between LISP and Ruby.
I don't know whether or not you will think this better than using 'eval', but in Ruby this kind of indirect reference problem can often be handled by introducing a hash. For example,
<code>
a = %w{ one two three four five }
b = %w{ six seven eight nine }
h = {}
h['a'] = a
h['b'] = b
foo = 'a'
h[foo][2] # => "three"
foo = 'b'
h[foo][2] # => "eight"
</code>
Regards, Morton
路路路
On Feb 19, 2007, at 8:10 PM, kenbo wrote:
Thanks for the folks that mentioned eval---I thought of that after the
posting but assumed that, as in LISP, there might be a better way to accomplish
it
It's nice to see more similarities between LISP and Ruby.
> > > I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
> > > to symbol
> > > manipulation I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
> > > and figure it's my
> > > general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
> > > "easy" solution.
> >
> > > With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
> > > it.
> >
> > > I have astringin a variable.
> > > foo = "bobo"
> >
> > > I want to use foo to access anarraycalled bobo. I will have bobo
> > > defined already.
> >
> > > Is there a way to do this?
> >
> > eval() might be what you're looking for. You can use eval to return thearraythen index in to it. Here's an example from:
> >
> > irb(main):001:0> awesome_array = %w{ one two three four five }
> > => ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]
> > irb(main):002:0> foo = 'awesome_array'
> > => "awesome_array"
> > irb(main):003:0> puts eval(foo)[1]
> > two
> > => nil
> > irb(main):004:0>
> >
> > Hope that helps!
> >
> > --
> > Aaron Pattersonhttp://tenderlovemaking.com/- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Thanks for the folks that mentioned eval---I thought of that after the
> posting but
> assumed that, as in LISP, there might be a better way to accomplish
> it
Are you thinking about Ma****, do not mention it anymore on this list
Well it is not really the way of Ruby.
>
> It's nice to see more similarities between LISP and Ruby.
>
> kenny
>
There is if you can get away from the local variable as somebody
mentioned without sharing his wisdom with us
If we want to access an array @bobo there is
instance_variable_get( "@'" << foo.to_s ).first
and all kind of variations.
Cheers
Robert
路路路
On 2/20/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:
On 2/20/07, kenbo <kenneth.moorman@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 19, 7:59 pm, Aaron Patterson <aaron_patter...@speakeasy.net> > > wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 09:20:13AM +0900, kenbo wrote:
--
We have not succeeded in answering all of our questions.
In fact, in some ways, we are more confused than ever.
But we feel we are confused on a higher level and about more important things.
-Anonymous
It's very unusual to need to dynamically reference a local variable. In
Ruby, local variables usually are highly, er, localized. An instance
variable is much more frequently used in the way you describe, and you
can access it, as Robert says, like so: