I don't get "kind"

Well, let me say this: The ask method get 2 arguments. The first argument question is not optional. The second argument kind is optional and have a default value 'string'. This means you can call your method like:

ask('what is your name?')  #in this case the method will no do the integer conversion and will return an string.
ask('waht is your age?', 'number')  #in this case the method will do the integer conversion and will return an integer.

I hope this help you.

In the context of what has been taught in the Basic Ruby course so far, it was unwise to suddenly dump "kind" on us without any previous explanation . The examples should only rehearse what we've learned so far otherwise it's distracting and confusing.

Hi

I agree this was not discussed nor does the instructor shed any light onto why he is using kind as an argument. What is noticeable is that you can comment out "# answer = answer.to_i if kind == "number"" and the code still works. You can also add p.answer.class and see that whatever value you put into the answer it is always returned as string because you entered a string.

contact_list = []

def ask(question, kind="string")# kind = "string" assigns "string" to the variable kind. kind == "number" checks the variable kind to see if its value is equal to "number".
  print question + " "
  answer = gets.chomp
# answer = answer.to_i if kind == "number"
  return answer
end

answer = ask("Whats your age?")
puts answer
p answer.class

 ./contact_list_step1.rb
Whats your age? 44
44
String

These classes kind of suck - I like that they're going for ease and simplicity - but part of simplicity means building up each brick of the code house, explaining each part of the code and it's general use cases/how it works, before setting the code "brick" down as part of the larger structure being built. Throwing this random brick confused the heck out of me. Look how bad there moderation is too. Not one response explaining what this is, three years later.

Trial, over. I'll check out another site.

I dont understand exactly why or what they are doing in this particular example. What is their role?

This Treehouse forum post might help.

I didnt get this as well........

Before I change, I'd like to give the mods a response to respond. Look at this code. Shouldn't this change the output to "integer" in this case? If not, my guess of what this code does, (keyword, guess) is off.

def parse_answer(answer, kind="integer")
  if kind == "number"
  puts answer.to_i.class
  else
    puts answer.class
  end
end

parse_answer("5")

[when tested, the output is "String"... double-you-tee-eff mate!]

The first 'kind' sets a default value: if only one argument is passed, then the kind (of that argument) is automatically assumed to be string. the second kind says if there is a second argument passed and that second argument is a number, apply .to_i (I believe this is because if you type 3, 5, 7 whatever number, that would be considered a string by ruby unless you tell it to convert it to an integer, or maybe because that number could also be a float?) . I'm pretty new to coding, hope it's right and clear :)

In a workspace?

Are you saying that you didn't learn this code before?