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Ruby

Posted by Andrew Stelmach
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 Points

Return from inside a method, but outside a loop

Try running this code.

When method1 is run, the hash is returned twice, meaning the hash is returned and printed as intended by the 'puts method1().inspect' command.

When method2 is run, and the loop is exited second time-around, by typing "no" or "n", a bunch of seemingly random numbers are printed, instead of a lovely hash. Why is this????

def method1

    loop do
        print "Item name: "
        item_name = gets.chomp

        print "How much? "
        quantity = gets.chomp.to_i

        hash = {"Item"=> item_name, "quantity"=> quantity}
        puts hash.inspect

        return hash
    end

end

puts method1().inspect


def method2

    loop do
        print "Item name: "
        item_name = gets.chomp

        print "How much? "
        quantity = gets.chomp.to_i

        hash = {"Item"=> item_name, "quantity"=> quantity}
        puts hash.inspect

        print "Add another item? "
        answer = gets.chomp.downcase
        break if (answer == "no") || (answer == "n")
    end

    return hash

end

puts method2().inspect

1 Answer

Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points

The hash in method2 was declared in the loop, so it drops out of scope before the return. You can declare the hash before entering the loop to fix that.

Andrew Stelmach
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 Points

That's awesome, thanks. I don't understand why it drops out of scope, but maybe I'll just have to accept it!

PS I simply added 

hash = {}

before the loop and it solved the problem.

Luke Buśk
Luke Buśk
21,598 Points

It drops out of scope because it is defined inside the block. Anything declared in block will dissapear once the loop is over OR it can pass things to already existing variable and change them.

You define hash, loop over it and then END the loop, THEN You want to return that hash but there is nothing to return because it does not exist anymore, hence the weird numbers when You call return.