# Beginner 'How-to' Question on getting Array info

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 8, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987 "2009-04-08T00:59:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noumes)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987/1 "2009-04-08T00:59:45Z")

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Hi,

I am trying to learn ruby and had a question (multiple in fact, however,  
i’ll ask this one)

Im making a tiny script that asks for the names of a person’s children,  
then replies by saying hi to each child.

for example:

what’s the names of these precious babies?  
user types: John, Greg, Sam  
replies: Hi John, Hi Greg, Hi Sam.

so far I was working with a single person, but I understood that part:  
def welcome(name)  
result = "Hey, " + name  
end  
puts “hey what’s your name?”  
name = gets  
puts welcome(name)

any help would be great ;] hope it’s as easy as it sounds!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noumes)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987/2 "2009-04-08T01:28:02Z")

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Nouman S. wrote:

> what’s the names of these precious babies?
> 
> any help would be great ;] hope it’s as easy as it sounds!

def welcome(name)  
result = "Hey, " + name  
end

str = ‘init’  
children = []  
while !str.empty?  
puts “Hey, what’s your name?”  
str = gets.chomp  
children \<\< str unless str.empty?  
end

children.each { |child| puts welcome(child) }

That will do it. Hit enter without any chars to finish typing names…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noumes)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987/3 "2009-04-08T01:54:03Z")

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thanks for taking the time to help Michael, this works great. Now time  
to break it down and see how you did it 🙂

thanks again!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@noumes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noumes)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-how-to-question-on-getting-array-info/164987/4 "2009-04-08T18:49:27Z")

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On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:53 PM, Nouman S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> thanks for taking the time to help Michael, this works great. Now time  
> to break it down and see how you did it 🙂
> 
> thanks again!

Here’s one for you that uses some other methods…

puts “What are the kids’ names?”  
puts( gets.chomp.split.map {|n| “Hi #{n}”}.join(", ") )

… basically, #split method builds array, #map changes prepends each  
element with "Hi ", and #join builds a string separating each element  
with ", ".

This assumes the user doesn’t use commas to separate names. If they  
do, you can split on commas with split(“,”), or use regular  
expressions.

Todd