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Ruby Ruby Operators and Control Structures Logical Operators Operator Precedence

Posted by A X
A X
12,842 Points

"Workspaces got a little funny here": Can you explain why this error produced 16?

I just watched Jason's Operator Precedence video, and he mentions at one point that "workspaces got a little funny here" and produced an interesting error(?). I'm curious if anyone can explain why this produced 16 as a result: ( * 2 * 4)

From a math perspective, I could maybe see Ruby interpreting the blank space as a 1, so 1 * 2 * 4....but that result is 8, not 16.

2 Answers

Oğulcan Girginc
Oğulcan Girginc
24,848 Points
Oğulcan Girginc
Oğulcan Girginc
24,848 Points

Normally, you would get a syntax error. It's probably just a minor problem in the workspaces.

Layla Cecil
Layla Cecil
22,310 Points
Layla Cecil
Layla Cecil
22,310 Points

I wondered the same thing, tried it in my Mac terminal using irb, and I got a syntax error.

Girginc's thinking appears sound.

Still, weird that any environment would allow such code to play out in that way.

Maybe the code was only checking if there were two asterisks, resulting in it multiplying 2 to the 4th power?