# Why won't this "if" clause work properly?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-wont-this-if-clause-work-properly/61082>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 19, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-wont-this-if-clause-work-properly/61082 "2006-05-19T22:24:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-wont-this-if-clause-work-properly/61082/1 "2006-05-19T22:24:05Z")

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Hi,  
I’m going nuts with this tiny script. I’m basically just doing a page  
count in a postscript print file. Even though I feed it jobs with an  
even number of pages, it still carries through with line 15, which  
should ONLY be run if it’s an odd page count. When I do this in IRB, it  
works fine. In other words, if its’ an even page count, it exits, like  
it should.  
Thanks.

1 Dir.chdir(“c:/scripts/ruby/temp/test”)  
2 fedpsfiles = Dir.glob(‘fed\*.ps’)  
3 #an array for the page count  
4 fedpsfiles.each do |fedpsfile|  
5 #totalpages = []  
6 #Read the whole file into memory.  
7 contents = File.read(fedpsfile)  
8 #Look for page entries and put them into an array.  
9 totalpages = contents.scan(/^%%Page:.\*[0-9]{1,5}$/) do  
10 end  
11 #If the totalpages.length, meaning the array count, is odd, then add  
a blank  
12 # at the end of the file.  
13 remainder = totalpages.length.to\_i % 2  
14 if remainder == 1 then  
15 contents \<\< “%%Blank page for Asura.\nshowpage\n”  
16 #Write the whole file now back to the original file.  
17 File.open(fedpsfile, “w”) { |f| f.print contents }  
18 else exit  
19 end  
20 end

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-wont-this-if-clause-work-properly/61082/2 "2006-05-19T23:58:05Z")

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Peter B. schrieb:

> I’m going nuts with this tiny script.  
> (…)

Peter, the problem with your script seems to be here:

> 9 totalpages = contents.scan(/^%%Page:.\*[0-9]{1,5}$/) do  
> 10 end

If you use String#scan with a block, the method returns the original  
string (“contents” in this case). See

[class String - RDoc Documentation](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/String.html#M001884)

Try to remove the “do end” part.

Regards,  
Pit

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-wont-this-if-clause-work-properly/61082/3 "2006-05-20T01:03:16Z")

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Pit C. wrote:

> Peter B. schrieb:
> 
> > I’m going nuts with this tiny script.  
> > (…)
> 
> Peter, the problem with your script seems to be here:
> 
> > 9 totalpages = contents.scan(/^%%Page:.\*[0-9]{1,5}$/) do  
> > 10 end
> 
> If you use String#scan with a block, the method returns the original  
> string (“contents” in this case). See
> 
> [class String - RDoc Documentation](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/String.html#M001884)
> 
> Try to remove the “do end” part.
> 
> Regards,  
> Pit

Thank you very, Pit. I believe the “do end” bit was in there from a  
previous rendition of this attempt, but, now that you say it, yes, it  
does make sense that it shouldn’t be there. I’ll try it first thing  
Monday morning.  
Cheers !