Using "chomp" to Fix Our Output

If we try to run the widget store program as it is now, the gets method returns the string the user types with a newline character on the end. This messes up the output when we try to print it. But when we looked at the documentation for the String class, we learned that strings have a method named chomp that can remove newline characters from the end of the string.

• Chain a call to chomp onto the return value of the gets method.

def ask(question)
  print question + " "
  gets.chomp # Add ".chomp" here
end

puts "Welcome to the widget store!"
answer = ask("How many widgets are you ordering?")
puts "You entered #{answer} widgets"

Output:

Welcome to the widget store!
How many widgets are you ordering? 10
You entered 10 widgets

• In ask method, keyboard input is returned from gets, with a newline character on the end
• We chained a method call to chomp after the call to gets, so chomp gets called on the return value of gets.
• chomp returns a new string with the newline character removed.
• That's what gets returned from the ask method, stored in the answer variable, and then displayed on the terminal.

Additional practice

We've created a workshop where you can get additional practice calling methods on Ruby objects. Don't miss this chance to strengthen your skills!

Visit the workshop here: Practice Input and Output in Ruby