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Ruby Ruby Booleans Build a Simple Todo List Program Returning Boolean Values: Part 2

Patrick Mockridge
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Patrick Mockridge
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 45,611 Points
Posted by Patrick Mockridge
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Patrick Mockridge
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 45,611 Points

What's wrong with my 'contains?' method?

The error message tells me that it's not returning a Boolean value but the way to code is written surely it has to. I don't know.

todo_list.rb 
class TodoList
  attr_reader :name, :todo_items

  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
    @todo_items = []
  end

  def add_item(name)
    todo_items.push(TodoItem.new(name))
  end

  def contains?(name)
    found = false
        todo_items.each do |item|
      found = true if item.name == name
      break if found
    end
    if found
      return found
    else
      return nil
    end
  end

  def find_index(name)
    index = 0
    found = false
        todo_items.each do |item|
      found = true if item.name == name
      break if found
      index += 1
    end
    if found
      return index
    else
      return nil
    end
  end
end

2 Answers

Jacob Bergdahl
Jacob Bergdahl
29,119 Points
Jacob Bergdahl
Jacob Bergdahl
29,119 Points

At one point you return "nil", which is not a boolean. A boolean value can only be true or false :)

joshuapetersen
joshuapetersen
2,340 Points
joshuapetersen
joshuapetersen
2,340 Points

A simpler version, maybe? 

def contains?(arr, name)
    found ||= false

    arr.each do |item|
        if item == name
            found = true
            break
        end
    end

    found
end

arr = %w(josh cid nancy joe)

puts contains?(arr, 'josh') # true
puts contains?(arr, 'mark') # false