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Ruby

Posted by Gus Feliciano
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Gus Feliciano
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 5,089 Points

Method Confusion in Ruby

I am confused on a certain part of my code while doing the Ruby Track on Building a Address Book.

Why is it that after I define a method for "last_first" for instance I need to type last_first after I end the if statement? Just don't seem to understand it.

Thanks!

class Contact
    attr_writer :first_name, :middle_name, :last_name

    def first_name
        @first_name
    end 

    def middle_name
        @middle_name
    end 

    def last_name
        @last_name
    end 

    def first_last
        first_name + " " + last_name
    end 

    def last_first 
        last_first = last_name
        last_first += ", "
        last_first += first_name
        if !@middle_name.nil?
            last_first += " "
            last_first += middle_name.slice(0, 1)
            last_first += "."
        end 
        last_first 
    end 

    def full_name
        full_name = first_name
        if !@middle_name.nil?
            full_name += " "
            full_name += middle_name
        end 
        full_name += ' '
        full_name += last_name
        full_name
    end 

    def to_s(format = 'full_name')
        case format
        when 'full_name'
            full_name
        when 'last_first'
            last_first
        when 'first'
            first_name
        when 'last'
            last_name
        else 
            first_last
        end 
    end 
end 

jason = Contact.new
jason.first_name = "Jason"
jason.last_name = "Seifer"
puts jason.to_s
puts jason.to_s('full_name')
puts jason.to_s('last_first')

nick = Contact.new
nick.first_name = "Nick"
nick.middle_name = "A"
nick.last_name = "Pettit"
puts nick.to_s('first_last')

1 Answer

Patrick Hager
Patrick Hager
15,539 Points

As I understand it, the reason you put "last_first" (and "full_name") is to explicitly return the contents of the variable when the method is called, in this case in your to_s method.

Hope that helps to clear it up a bit.