Unary operator

ruby-talk
1

Hi all,

here is a novice's question: I am wondering how to equip a class with
a unary operator. Defining a method "-" like this

class Something
  # ...

  def -
    # some code
  end

  # ...
end

I have to call "-" by writing
  somethingelse = something.-

Is there a possibility to write this in prefix notation?
  somethingelse = -something

Thanks in advance, best,

Stephan

2

stephan.zimmer wrote:

Hi all,

here is a novice's question: I am wondering how to equip a class with
a unary operator. Defining a method "-" like this

The method name for unary - is -@, and the method name for unary + is +@.

···

--
RMagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/

3

stephan.zimmer wrote:

Hi all,

here is a novice's question: I am wondering how to equip a class with
a unary operator. Defining a method "-" like this

class Something
  # ...

  def -
    # some code
  end

  # ...
end

I have to call "-" by writing
  somethingelse = something.-

Is there a possibility to write this in prefix notation?
  somethingelse = -something

Thanks in advance, best,

Stephan

Hi Stephan,
This shows binary and unary operator definitions.
Hope it helps.

class Sam
   attr_accessor :me

   def initialize(me='This is a default: ')
     @me = me
   end

   "Binary Operator"
   def + (arg)
     self.me + arg.to_s
   end

   "Unary operator"
   def -@
     self.me.reverse
   end
end

x = Sam.new('Test ')
p x + 'Test'
p -x

Cheers,
Steve