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In this part of building a simple contact list, we're going to add contacts to our `contact_list` array.
Code Samples
We write the following code in this video. A line by line explanation follows:
def add_contact
contact = {"name" => "", "phone_numbers" => []}
contact["name"] = ask("What is the person's name?")
answer = ""
while answer != "n"
answer = ask("Do you want to add a phone number? (y/n)")
if answer == "y"
phone = ask("Enter a phone number:")
contact["phone_numbers"].push(phone)
end
end
end
answer = ""
while answer != "n"
contact_list.push(add_contact())
end
Code Explanation
First, we create our add_contact method:
def add_contact
We then set up a default contact hash which the method will return. The hash has two keys -- name which is a string and phone_numbers which is an array:
contact = {"name" => "", "phone_numbers" => []}
We then add the name by calling the ask method. The ask method returns a string, which is immediately assigned to the name attribute:
contact["name"] = ask("What is the person's name?")
Next, we set up our answer and loop until the user doesn't want to enter any more phone numbers:
answer = ""
while answer != "n"
answer = ask("Do you want to add a phone number? (y/n)")
If the user answers "y" we ask for a phone number using the ask method. The result is assigned to the phone variable which with then append to the contact["phone_numbers"] array:
if answer == "y"
phone = ask("Enter a phone number:")
contact["phone_numbers"].push(phone)
end
The next lines close the conditional and loop indentation:
end
end
Finally, we set up the answer variable and loop adding contacts until the user is done:
answer = ""
while answer != "n"
contact_list.push(add_contact())
end
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0:00
Okay, so now that we've got this ask method working let's go ahead and
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0:05
delete that little test that we did.
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0:08
Now we'll create a method called add_contact.
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0:12
And what this is going to do is create a contact which is a hash.
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0:18
And then it will return that hash.
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0:24
And our contact we'll say it is going to have a name which
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0:29
is going to be an empty string, and our contact is going to have phone numbers.
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0:35
And since they can have more than one phone number that's going to be an array.
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0:40
And we know that we're going to return this contact.
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0:46
So now that we have this contact hash setup.
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0:50
Let's go ahead and get the contacts name.
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0:55
We do that by saying contact, and then we use the hash key name.
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1:04
And then we'll set that equal
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1:06
to the response of asking what the persons name is.
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1:17
Now you'll see the ask method returns a string which is going to be answer,
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1:24
so we can call it and assign it all in one go.
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1:30
So now that we do that we know that we have the name set but
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1:34
we might not have the person's phone number.
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1:38
So let's go ahead and ask to enter phone numbers using a while loop.
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1:44
We'll set the empty answer.
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1:49
And then we'll say,
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1:52
while the answer does not equal no, or n.
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1:57
We'll say,
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2:03
we ask the the user, do you want to add a phone number?
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2:07
And we'll give them a little prompt,
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2:11
saying Y or N, and then if the answer is Y.
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2:20
We'll ask for the phone number.
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2:27
Assign that to a variable called phone, and then,
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2:35
we'll push that answer into the phone numbers array.
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2:42
So we create our empty hash with default values,
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2:47
assign a person's name by asking a question.
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2:50
And then, as long as somebody does not answer no,
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2:55
we keep asking them to add a phone number/ And
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2:59
then push that onto our contact phone numbers array.
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3:04
Now that we have the add contact method, let's go ahead and
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3:08
loop through and ask people to enter contacts.
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3:14
We'll use this same pattern that we've been using before.
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3:17
And we'll say, while the answer does not equal n.
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3:25
Actually, let's go ahead and take our contact_list array,
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3:30
and put it closer to this code.
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3:34
And that's just so we can see it.
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3:38
So while the answer does not equal no, we will add
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3:46
to our contact list, the result of the add contact method.
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Which returns a contact hash.
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4:00
And then we can ask the person, If they want to add another.
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4:11
Let's go ahead and run this and see what happens.
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4:17
What is the person's name?
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Jason.
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4:20
No I don't want to add a phone number to Jason.
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4:22
What's the person's name?
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Nick.
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4:25
Do I want to add a phone number?
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4:27
Yes, 123.
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4:27
That works.
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4:28
Do I want to add another phone number?
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Yes, 456.
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And it's going to keep asking me these questions until I answer no, and
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then the program exits.
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4:39
In our next video,
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4:40
we're going to format the contact list once we have this all set up.
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