What is ?E in str.index(?E)

ruby-talk
1

Dear all
    I am learning Ruby. "The Ruby Way" has following example.

irb(main):047:0> str = "Albert Einstein"
=> "Albert Einstein"
irb(main):048:0> str.index(?E)
=> 7
irb(main):049:0> str1 = "mathematics"
=> "mathematics"
irb(main):050:0> flag1 = str1.include? ?e
=> true
irb(main):051:0>

What is ?E

(Does ? above work like shell globbing?)

I tried the FAQ online but could not get anything..

TIA for any pointers/online help

-- thx atul

2

cfp:~ > cat a.rb
p ?A
p 'A'[0]
p 65.chr

cfp:~ > ruby a.rb
65
"A"

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

···

On May 26, 2008, at 9:39 PM, askingagain wrote:

Dear all
   I am learning Ruby. "The Ruby Way" has following example.

irb(main):047:0> str = "Albert Einstein"
=> "Albert Einstein"
irb(main):048:0> str.index(?E)
=> 7
irb(main):049:0> str1 = "mathematics"
=> "mathematics"
irb(main):050:0> flag1 = str1.include? ?e
=> true
irb(main):051:0>

What is ?E

(Does ? above work like shell globbing?)

I tried the FAQ online but could not get anything..

TIA for any pointers/online help

-- thx atul

--
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being better. simply reflect on that.
h.h. the 14th dalai lama

3

askingagain wrote:

Dear all
    I am learning Ruby. "The Ruby Way" has following example.

irb(main):047:0> str = "Albert Einstein"
=> "Albert Einstein"
irb(main):048:0> str.index(?E)
=> 7
irb(main):049:0> str1 = "mathematics"
=> "mathematics"
irb(main):050:0> flag1 = str1.include? ?e
=> true
irb(main):051:0>

What is ?E

(Does ? above work like shell globbing?)

I tried the FAQ online but could not get anything..

TIA for any pointers/online help

-- thx atul

See: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_stdtypes.html

"You can also get the integer value corresponding to an ASCII character or escape sequence by preceding it with a question mark."

···

--
Kam-Hung Soh <a href="http://kamhungsoh.com/blog">Software Salariman</a>