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Ruby Loops

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Times Iteration

2:21 with Jason Seifer

The times iterator will take a number and execute the statements in the block that number of times. The times iterator optionally takes an argument and, just like array indices, starts at 0.

Code Samples

Using a number, we can iterate that amount of times:

5.times do
  puts "Hello!"
end

This will print "Hello!" to the screen 5 times.

The times method also can take a single argument:

5.times do |item|
  puts "Hello! #{item}"
end

Just like an array index, the times index starts at 0.

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    Another kind of iterator in Ruby that works specifically with 0:00
    integers is the times iterator. 0:04
    The times iterator will take a number, 0:07
    execute the statements in the block that number of times. 0:10
    The times iterator, optionally, 0:14
    takes an argument, and, just like array indexes, starts at zero. 0:16
    Let's see how that works now using WorkSpaces. 0:22
    Okay, using a Ruby workspace let's go ahead and create a new file. 0:25
    We'll call this times.rb. 0:29
    The times method is really easy to use. 0:31
    We'll take any number, let's use 5 as an example and 0:36
    use a dot like we're going to call a method and then we use the word times. 0:40
    From there, we write a do end block like we're used to. 0:48
    Now let's just type puts hello. 0:52
    Now we can run this, using ruby times.rb. 0:57
    And we see that it prints hello five times. 1:02
    And we can also send arguments into the times method. 1:10
    Let's create a new file. 1:16
    To test that out, we'll call it times_with_argument.rb. 1:18
    And we'll write that just like we did the times loop. 1:24
    So here we did five times. 1:29
    Do end. 1:34
    Now just like with other iterators and blocks, 1:37
    if we want to send an argument to the block we do so by writing a pipe and 1:40
    putting the local variable inside of the pipes. 1:45
    The times method can take one argument into the block 1:50
    and we'll go ahead and print that out. 1:56
    And if we run ruby times_with_argument.rb. 2:02
    We can see, we get all of these different arguments as the item and 2:06
    it starts with zero just like array indexes. 2:11
    Try practicing with the times iterator on your own now, using WorkSpaces. 2:16

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