# Console input

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/console-input/95601>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 7, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/console-input/95601 "2006-06-07T07:58:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![michal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@michal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michal)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/console-input/95601/1 "2006-06-07T07:58:38Z")

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## I’d ask you why the following code doesn’t works:

data = gets  
data.chomp

## if data == “a” puts “True” else puts “False” end

It’s always false. (ruby 1.8.4 in WinXP console)  
Thanks for your answers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![michal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@michal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michal)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/console-input/95601/2 "2006-06-07T08:25:46Z")

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Michal wrote:

> –  
> It’s always false. (ruby 1.8.4 in WinXP console)

“chomp” does not alter the string, it returns a new, modified copy.  
“chomp!” does modify the string, and returns nil if no change was  
made.

Try these instead:

data = gets.chomp

or:

data = gets  
data.chomp!

Cheers,  
Dave