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Ruby

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Posted by Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

Instance Methods Syntax error loading my bank_account.rb

I'm following along in my Terminal and text editor for the Ruby Deep Dive. It looks like it's getting my .rb file correctly but throwing a syntax error. My file and the one in the video are identical as far as I can tell, but I'm a Ruby noob so.. I dunno.

When I:

load './bank_account.rb'

I get:

syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting :: or '.'
def @withdraw(amount)

Any ideas?

First one to solve help me over this speed bump gets a digital hive five.

Full error message: 

load './bank_account.rb'
SyntaxError: /Volumes/DATA/Users/atotalpirate/Desktop/treehouse/Source/methods/bank_account.rb:13: syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting :: or '.'
def @withdraw(amount)
              ^
/Volumes/DATA/Users/atotalpirate/Desktop/treehouse/Source/methods/bank_account.rb:17: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting end-of-input
from (irb#1):1:in `load'
from (irb#1):1

2 Answers

Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points
Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points

I'm not the best at explaining this since I am learning myself. But I had a similar issue. This is what I did.

I saved my document to my desktop, for me, this is a very easy path for me to use.

I then opened my terminal, and typed in irb (enter)

then I put this:

load 'desktop/treehouse-methods.rb'

treehouse-methods is the name of my bank account file.

After that, it returned true.

I believe the "." is saying "current director". So if you replace the "." with the same directory you saved your file in, it should work.

Hope this helps!

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately this did not work for me. I tried renaming the file, every different path syntax I could think of, moving the file, scouring the contents for the smallest typo or extra whitespace (just in case?) and right now I'm shopping online for a goat to sacrifice to Gods of Computer Stuff I Don't Understand.

Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points

Do you know what directory you saved the bank_account.rb? Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc?

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

I have it in Desktop/treehouse/Source/methods/bank_account.rb

I've tried exiting irb and cding into my methods folder and using load './bank_account.rb'

While typing this I tried copying my bank_account.rb to my root (cd ~) and using load './bank_account.rb' and it returned true. Does this just mean I'm stupid at paths? Gah.

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

load './Desktop/treehouse/Source/methods/bank_account.rb'

Is also returning true. It seems that yes. I am just stupid at paths. The goat will live to fight another day.

Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points
Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points

so it is returning true now? Is it working?

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

It is indeed. Thanks! Your answer got me rechecking my paths which was the right direction.

Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points
Jimmy Holway
Jimmy Holway
26,589 Points

Nevermind. Turns out I just deleted the contents of the file and loaded to see if there was an error in my code. When I command + z'd my code back, I got that error again. Below is my code. I can't find the problem but the Terminal seems to be pointing to def @withdraw(amount).

class BankAccount
def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @balance = 0
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
end

def deposit(amount)
    @balance += amount
end

def @withdraw(amount)
    @balance -= amount
end

end

UPDATE:

When I remove the following code, my load returns true in irb:

def deposit(amount)
    @balance += amount
end

UPDATE AGAIN:

I just decided to retype everything and for reasons I can't find, it works perfectly now. Loads true and accepts input. I can only assume a wizard is teasing me.