It’s got nothing to do with mixins:
class TestClass
def x=(arg)
@x = arg
end
def x
@x
end
def monkey(arg)
x = arg
end
end
irb(main):012:0> a = TestClass.new
=> #TestClass:0x2ac6e48
irb(main):013:0> a.monkey(‘aa’)
=> “aa”
irb(main):014:0> a.x
=> nil
In the monkey method, x = arg is assigning to the local variable x, not
calling the method x=().
Refer to the x variable either as self.x or @x.
from the object’s initialize().
end
x=alpha # x is set inside constructor
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OK, thanks. Can I force “x=(whatever)” to mean a method call instead
of an assignment?
I thought the parantheses were supposed to do that?
jf
Hi –
On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Johannes F. wrote:
OK, thanks. Can I force “x=(whatever)” to mean a method call instead
of an assignment?
I thought the parantheses were supposed to do that?
You have to give the explicit receiver ‘self’. The thing is, local
variable assignments can have things with parens on the right, so that
alone is not enough to exempt that expression from being interpreted
as a l.v. assignment.
David
David A. Black
[email protected]
“Ruby for Rails”, forthcoming from Manning Publications, April 2006!
On Dec 7, 2005, at 12:29 AM, Johannes F. wrote:
OK, thanks. Can I force “x=(whatever)” to mean a method call instead
of an assignment?
I thought the parantheses were supposed to do that?
It is a parsing problem. Because ruby supports zero argument methods
the parser when it sees:
x = 4
can’t decide from the syntax alone if this is a local variable
assignment
or if this is a method call to the x= method for the object (with 0
arguments).
This decision needs to be made when the method is parsed long before
the method has actually been executed.
So the goal is to convince the parser of what you want. If you want
this
to be a method call then you have the following options:
self.x = 4 # explicit method call
x() = 4 # also explicit but not 'rubyish'
Putting arguments around right-hand-side expression doesn’t help the
parser:
x = (4) # no help here
Neither does getting rid of spaces
x=(4) # still no help
The parser also learns as it goes along to help disambiguate other
uses of the variable. See http://dev.rubycentral.com/faq/rubyfaq-4.html
for more details (section 4.3)
[email protected] wrote:
self.x = 4 # explicit method call
x() = 4 # also explicit but not 'rubyish'
Hm, and a syntax error as well, if I’m not wrong.
On Dec 7, 2005, at 9:09 AM, Florian Groß wrote:
[email protected] wrote:
self.x = 4 # explicit method call
x() = 4 # also explicit but not 'rubyish'
Hm, and a syntax error as well, if I’m not wrong.
My bad. I really should cut and paste into irb…