# (no subject)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292>\
**Category:** IronRuby\
**Created:** [May 11, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292 "2008-05-11T14:37:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/977dab/32.png) [@editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/editkid)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292/1 "2008-05-11T14:37:30Z")

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It would be useful to have a helper function to clean up this kind of  
code.  
Or is there one and I can’t find it?

RubyUtils.GetConstant(context, rubyClass,  
SymbolTable.StringToId(mutableString.ConvertToString()), true);

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/977dab/32.png) [@editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/editkid)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292/2 "2008-05-11T14:39:15Z")

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MutableString.ToSymbol()?

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 5:34 AM, Peter Bacon D. \<

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/977dab/32.png) [@editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/editkid)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292/3 "2008-05-11T14:54:00Z")

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Magic!

Now the next question is should I be using:

mutableString.ConvertToString() or mutableString.GetStringSlice(0)

to get hold of a CLR string for passing to a .NET method.

Both end up calling Content.GetStringSlice(…) anyway but the second  
one  
seems to go through slightly fewer method calls. My feeling is the  
former  
is more intuitive.

Pete

From: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
[[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)] On Behalf Of Curt  
Hagenlocher  
Sent: Sunday,11 May 11, 2008 13:38  
To: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
Subject: Re: [Ironruby-core] (no subject)

MutableString.ToSymbol()?

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 5:34 AM, Peter Bacon D.  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

It would be useful to have a helper function to clean up this kind of  
code.  
Or is there one and I can’t find it?

RubyUtils.GetConstant(context, rubyClass,  
SymbolTable.StringToId(mutableString.ConvertToString()), true);

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/977dab/32.png) [@editkid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/editkid)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/no-subject/137292/4 "2008-05-11T15:26:20Z")

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1. ConvertToString is much more readable.

2. The JITter could theoretically eliminate one or more method calls  
anyway  
(though I can’t say that I know for sure that it does).

3. We haven’t done anything to optimize this new version of  
MutableString  
yet. In particular, we might find that getting a string from the  
same MutableString multiple times is a frequent enough operation that  
we’ll  
cache the results after the first call. It’s much less likely that such  
an  
optimization would be made for the output of Slice.

My personal rule-of-thumb is that the code you write should clearly  
express  
your intent as cleanly as possible. We write code not just for the  
computer  
but also for other humans. Performance issues should be considered up  
front  
only when considering higher-level design, and for lower-level code are  
best  
identified later on through profiling.

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Peter Bacon D. \<