What am I doing wrong?

ruby-talk
1

I didn't see a beginners forum - hope it's ok to post this here.

I feel so daft as this must be the simplest question you've probably
been asked!

Anyway I'm new to Ruby and want to create a very simple script that
generates 100 random words and puts them into an array. I want to put
them into an array so I can use array.uniq! so there are no duplicates.

Here's my code so far (although I have tried lots of variations
already).

···

----------------
def create_word
  first_letter = ["b", "c", "d", "f", "g", "h", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n",
"p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"].shuffle[0..6].join
end

def create_list(word)
  words = []
  words << word
end

100.times do
  list << create_list(create_word)
  puts list
end

--------

Like I said I am a beginner... well that's my excuse lol.

Hope someone can help!
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

2

First of all it would be better, when asking for help, to tell exactly what
the problem is (for example, including the error message you obtain or
explaining why the result your code produces is not what you expected). This
way, you make things easier for people wanting to help you.

As for your code. The error is in the line

list << create_list(create_word)

The problem is that something called list has never been defined before, so
ruby doesn't know what to do with it. What you wanted is

list = create_list(create_word)

This creates a local variable called list and stores inside it the value that
the create_list method returns.

I hope this helps

Stefano

···

On Thursday 28 January 2010, Ast Jay wrote:

>I didn't see a beginners forum - hope it's ok to post this here.
>
>I feel so daft as this must be the simplest question you've probably
>been asked!
>
>Anyway I'm new to Ruby and want to create a very simple script that
>generates 100 random words and puts them into an array. I want to put
>them into an array so I can use array.uniq! so there are no duplicates.
>
>Here's my code so far (although I have tried lots of variations
>already).
>
>----------------
>def create_word
> first_letter = ["b", "c", "d", "f", "g", "h", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n",
>"p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"].shuffle[0..6].join
>end
>
>def create_list(word)
> words =
> words << word
>end
>
>100.times do
> list << create_list(create_word)
> puts list
>end
>
>--------
>
>Like I said I am a beginner... well that's my excuse lol.
>
>Hope someone can help!

3

Ast Jay wrote:

I didn't see a beginners forum - hope it's ok to post this here.

I feel so daft as this must be the simplest question you've probably
been asked!

Anyway I'm new to Ruby and want to create a very simple script that
generates 100 random words and puts them into an array. I want to put
them into an array so I can use array.uniq! so there are no duplicates.

Hi and welcome to Ruby and its community!
Your code looks good so far.

def create_word
  first_letter = ["b", "c", "d", "f", "g", "h", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n",
"p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"].shuffle[0..6].join
end

You don't need to create "first_letter". Ruby returns the last
expression evaluated -- so when you run that line, it returns a string
of seven characters.

def create_list(word)
  words =
  words << word
end

Clever! There is however something even CLEVERER!
def create_list word # note the parenthesis are optional!
  [word]
end

As you can see, there's no need for a method just to do that.

100.times do
list << create_list(create_word)
puts list
end

A "Set" is an array that doesn't accept duplicates. So you can do this:

require 'set'
list = Set.new
100.times { list << create_word }

or...
list =
100.times { list << create_word }
list.uniq!

Make sense?

···

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

4

Here's your problem:

def create_list(word)

words = []

words << word

end

Every time you call create_list, you make a new list.

If I were going to write your code, I'd do it like this:

words = []

100.times { words << ("a".."z").to_a.shuffle[0..6].join }

words.uniq!

Make sense?

5

Don't be so hard on yourself :slight_smile:

I'm not completely certain what you were wanting to happen, this works for
me, and seems to behave in pretty much the same way your looked like it
wanted to behave.

def create_word
  Array('b'..'z').shuffle[0..6].join
end

list = Array.new
100.times { list << create_word }

puts list

···

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Ast Jay <azzzz@gmx.net> wrote:

I didn't see a beginners forum - hope it's ok to post this here.

I feel so daft as this must be the simplest question you've probably
been asked!

Anyway I'm new to Ruby and want to create a very simple script that
generates 100 random words and puts them into an array. I want to put
them into an array so I can use array.uniq! so there are no duplicates.

Here's my code so far (although I have tried lots of variations
already).

----------------
def create_word
first_letter = ["b", "c", "d", "f", "g", "h", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n",
"p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"].shuffle[0..6].join
end

def create_list(word)
words =
words << word
end

100.times do
list << create_list(create_word)
puts list
end

--------

Like I said I am a beginner... well that's my excuse lol.

Hope someone can help!
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

6

Wow! Thank you all for such a fast response - I am shocked as I wasn't
expecting replies so soon!

Also apologies as I forgot to take out the 'first_letter' variable. The
code was actually part of a bigger block to create a word based on
exactly what I want - a first_letter, middle_letters, and an end_letter.
I just tried to keep it simple when I posted here and forgot to clean
that bit out.

BIG thank you for all that helped - it looks easy when someone else
gives you the code :slight_smile: I ended up using Aldric's code:

···

-------------------
def create_word
  # code block here to construct a random word to my exact spec
end

list = []
1000.times { list << create_word }
list.uniq!

puts list
------------------

Once again a huge thank you - the Ruby community really rocks! I also
appreciate the kind words of encouragement - I really did feel stupid
posting this as the answer just seemed so obvious *blush*.

I just hope I am as good as you guys one day!

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