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Ruby Ruby Collections Ruby Arrays Accessing Items in Arrays

This seems like an easy challenge but not getting it.

Can someone help me here?

array.rb
grocery_list = ["milk", "eggs", "bread", "ice cream", "potatoes", "pie"]

grocery_list.first[0]

3 Answers

Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,414 Points

To reference an item in an array we usually use the brackets after the array: array[position] We start counting the postition from zero, so the first item in the array is

grocery_list[0]

Ruby does have a .first methods for arrays and can be used like this:

grocery_list.first

But you don't use both together. Also the challenge says to put the item in a variable called first_item so don't forget to assign it.

first_item = grocery_list[0]

There are a few things here that are preventing you from reaching the correct answer:

  1. You need to create a variable called first_item.
  2. To access the first item in a standard array you use the arrays variable name followed by [0]. grocery_list[0] for example.
  3. Assign the first_item variable the first item in grocery_list like below.
first_item = grocery_list[0];

Thanks for your explanation. Very helpful.

Thanks for explaining this. Gives me much clarity.