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Ruby

Posted by devon offutt
devon offutt
1,744 Points

Objects, Classes, and Variables extra credit

Ok so i am attempting to count the number of letters that are in the name, but im getting a 

name.rb:7:in `+': can't convert Fixnum into String (TypeError)
    from name.rb:7:in `<main>'

error when it is ran. here is the code. Any help would be nice :)

puts "Enter your name"
name = gets.chomp
a = 0

while a < name.length do
  a = a + 1
end

if a > 25
  puts "Name to long!"
else
  puts name + " " + a
end

1 Answer

Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw
26,676 Points

Hi Devin,

Looking at your code you're taking a very long approach to something that doesn't need to be, the biggest hurdle you've given yourself is adding a while loop where no loop needs to occur, because you're getting the user input all you need to do is check the length of the name variable in your if statement and from there output the correct string.

puts "Enter your name"
name = gets.chomp

if name.length > 25
  puts "Name to long!"
else
  puts "#{name} #{name.length}"
end

The original problem you were having was been caused by the below line.

puts name + " " + a

Why? In Ruby you can't convert integers to strings on the fly, you either need to use interpolation like I have above or the to_s method which means to string.

devon offutt
devon offutt
1,744 Points

Thanks! This worked and I understand everything but the #{name} and #{name.length}. I get that the first one just prints the name but why do you need the #?

Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw
26,676 Points

In Ruby the pound or hash as it's known tells the compiler that interpolation it about to occur so it needs to parse whatever is inside of the curly braces as executable code, without this the compiler would breeze right past it and parse as it a normal string.

devon offutt
devon offutt
1,744 Points

Thanks!

Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw
26,676 Points

No worries, happy coding =)