Curious why copying an array element by element fails when using strip!

Rails
1

Hi,

I wanted to copy one array into another, element by element, so that I
could edit the source data as necessary. I simultaneously changed a
source element using “strip!”. The latter step corrupted the
copying. Without the bang operator, all works as expected.

The above question, source code and output are stored at
http://www.pastie.org/539430.

This is not an earth-shattering problem. I’m just curious why it
doesn’t work … especially because it took me a good while to figure
out the cause of my app’s failure.

Thanks in Advance,
Richard

2

Hi,

Did you read the documentation on strip and strip!?
(class String - RDoc Documentation)

strip! modifies the existing string (returning itself if a modification
occurred and nil if nothing was done), while strip does the modification
and returns a new string.

Simon

On Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:11:30 +0800, RichardOnRails

3

Hi Simon & Jamey,

I forgot the first commandment of programming: RTFM. Sorry, guys.
Thanks for you excellent responses.

Best wishes,
Richard

On Jul 8, 8:11 pm, RichardOnRails

4

The strip! method isn’t corrupting the copy. It’s that the strip!
method returns nil if nothing was stripped from the string. That’s
why you are getting nil for the second array element in the copy.

Jamey

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 8:11 PM,