# When {integer:0} \<\> 0? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 5, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340 "2010-04-05T10:37:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/1 "2010-04-05T10:37:04Z")
Greetings, folks! This one will be so obvious to you all, but it has had me baffled for hours. (Script appended below.) Please enlighten me! Thank you! Richard F. * * * # the following is called with: # do shell script “arch -i386 ruby ‘/Users/me/Desktop/Tests.rb’” # Thank you, has!! require “appscript”; include Appscript require ‘osax’; include OSAX module Y; def self.z; 0; end; end osax.say(Y.z) #=\> “zero” if p(Y.z): 0 # I assume this is the culprit! osax.say(Y.z) #=\> silence end osax.set\_the\_clipboard\_to(Y.z) #=\> {integer:0} ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/2 "2010-04-05T10:47:16Z")
Richard F. wrote: > if p(Y.z): 0 # I assume this is the culprit! > osax.say(Y.z) #=\> silence > end What are you trying to do here? What you’ve written is equivalent to if p(Y.z) 0 osax.say(Y.z) end You haven’t defined a method called p, so you get the standard Kernel#p “p x” is like “puts x.inspect” and returns nil, which is treated as false, so the code inside the if is not executed. ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/3 "2010-04-05T16:35:15Z")
Brian C. wrote: > Richard F. wrote: > > > if p(Y.z): 0 # I assume this is the culprit! > > osax.say(Y.z) #=\> silence > > end > > What are you trying to do here? Thank you for the response, Brian! (Y,z) is initially defined as 0: module Y; def self.z; 0; end; end and both: osax.say(Y.z) #=\> “zero” and p(Y.z) #=\> {integer:0} validates that Y.z) = 0 What if statement do I have to write to get Ruby to recognize an existing value? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/4 "2010-04-05T16:58:42Z")
Richard F. wrote: > Thank you for the response, Brian! > > (Y,z) is initially defined as 0: > module Y; def self.z; 0; end; end That’s Y.z, not (Y,z) > and both: > osax.say(Y.z) #=\> “zero” and > p(Y.z) #=\> {integer:0} > validates that Y.z) = 0 Yes. p(Y.z) shows you that Y.z is 0. > What if statement do I have to write to get Ruby to recognize an > existing value? Just the bare expression, Y.z if Y.z == 0 do\_something end Or there’s a one-liner form: do\_something if Y.z == 0 You could also write if Y.z do\_something end and this would work, because any value which is not nil or false is treated as true (so zero is true). The colon is not a comparison operator, it is a (rarely-used) statement separator. It’s not what you want here. e.g. if true: puts “hello”; end is same as if true; puts “hello”; end and if true puts “hello” end ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/5 "2010-04-05T17:10:45Z")
Thank you, Jesús and Brian, that was what I needed! Please forgive me for my vast ignorance. I have learned so many different Mac scripting languages over the years and all of them “have left the choir invisible and are pushing up daisies.” Thus I had no choice but to learn AppleScript. 😉 I am THRILLED that Ruby looks like a keeper! and I apologize again for my extreme Ruby “noobieness.” Blessings and thank you! Richard F. ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/6 "2010-04-05T17:14:23Z")
On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 5:10 PM, Richard F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Thank you, Jesús and Brian, that was what I needed! > > Please forgive me for my vast ignorance. I have learned so many > different Mac scripting languages over the years and all of them “have > left the choir invisible and are pushing up daisies.” Thus I had no > choice but to learn AppleScript. 😉 > > I am THRILLED that Ruby looks like a keeper! and I apologize again for > my extreme Ruby “noobieness.” No need to apologize. As I read sometimes in this list (I think it’s Robert K. who usually says this) we all started as newbies at some point 🙂 Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/7 "2010-04-05T16:46:53Z")
On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Richard F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > (Y,z) is initially defined as 0: > module Y; def self.z; 0; end; end > > and both: > osax.say(Y.z) #=\> “zero” and > p(Y.z) #=\> {integer:0} > validates that Y.z) = 0 > > What if statement do I have to write to get Ruby to recognize an > existing value? if (Y.z == 0) osax.say(Y.z) end you have two errors: p(Y.z) as Brian explained is calling Kernel#p which always returns nil, and so using that return value in an if is not what you want. The second error is using : 0, when you are trying (I think) to compare the result of Y.z with 0. What follows the colon is the first statement in the if body, not a value to compare to. Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c37758/32.png) [@richardfairhurst](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richardfairhurst)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-integer-0-0/186340/8 "2010-04-05T19:05:36Z")
On 04/05/2010 05:13 PM, Jesús Gabriel y Galán wrote: > No need to apologize. As I read sometimes in this list (I think it’s > Robert K. who usually says this) we all started as newbies at some > point 🙂 I couldn’t agree more. 😉 Just one additional bit of information: the syntax with the colon is not supported any more in 1.9.1: robert@fussel:~$ ruby -vc x.rb ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [i486-linux] x.rb:7: warning: unused literal ignored Syntax OK robert@fussel:~$ ruby19 -vc x.rb ruby 1.9.1p376 (2009-12-07 revision 26041) [i686-linux] x.rb:7: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting keyword\_then or ‘;’ or ‘\n’ if p(Y.z): 0 # I assume this is the culprit! ^ x.rb:7: warning: unused literal ignored x.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected keyword\_end, expecting $end robert@fussel:~$ cat -n x.rb 1 require “appscript”; include Appscript 2 require ‘osax’; include OSAX 3 4 module Y; def self.z; 0; end; end 5 osax.say(Y.z) #=\> “zero” 6 7 if p(Y.z): 0 # I assume this is the culprit! 8 osax.say(Y.z) #=\> silence 9 end 10 11 osax.set\_the\_clipboard\_to(Y.z) #=\> {integer:0} 12 robert@fussel:~$ Brian is absolutely right: the colon in this place is used so rarely that I even had forgotten about it. While we’re at it, let’s check another usage: robert@fussel:~$ ruby -vce ‘case x; when 1: puts true else puts false end’ ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [i486-linux] Syntax OK robert@fussel:~$ ruby19 -vce ‘case x; when 1: puts true else puts false end’ ruby 1.9.1p376 (2009-12-07 revision 26041) [i686-linux] -e:1: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting keyword\_then or ‘,’ or ‘;’ or ‘\n’ case x; when 1: puts true else puts false end ^ robert@fussel:~$ Aha, colon disappeared with “when” as well. Kind regards robert