Getting User input in letters for elsif - ruby

Question

I have been trying to get user input to execute a code. I have trying to get user input in letters not number but not finding how to. Like below is sample code I try get user input using gets.chomp() but its giving an error. Is there a way to get through this?
puts "Are you tall"
istall = gets.chomp()
puts "Are you male"
ismale = gets.chomp()
if
istall == true
ismale == false
print "Hello Erica, Welcome"
elsif
istall == false
ismale == true
print "Hello Nikola"
elsif
istall == false
ismale == false
print "Hello Cathie"
elsif
istall == true
istall == true
print "Hello Adam"
end

Answer 1

There are two problems with your code:
1. Gathering input
gets returns a string but you expect a boolean. Therefore, you have to convert the input, e.g.:
istall = gets.match?(/yes|true/i)
The above uses a regular expression to check whether gets matches "yes" or "true". The result (a boolean) is then assigned to istall.
2. Processing input
Your code
if
istall == true
ismale == false
print "Hello Erica, Welcome"
end
is parsed as:
if istall == true
# anything else
end
i.e. only the first condition is taken into account. To combine both conditions, you have to use &&:
if istall == true && ismale == false
print "Hello Erica, Welcome"
end
or a little more succinct:
if istall && !ismale
print "Hello Erica, Welcome"
end
Suggestions
For better readability, you should separate words by underscores, e.g.:
is_tall = true
is_male = false
You could put the people in an array, e.g. by creating a Person class via Struct:
Person = Struct.new(:name, :tall, :male)
people = [
Person.new('Erica', true, false),
Person.new('Nikola', false, true),
Person.new('Cathie', false, false),
Person.new('Adam', true, true),
]
Now you can find a person meeting your criteria:
is_tall = true # <- replace with actual user input
is_male = false
user = people.find { |person| person.tall == is_tall && person.male == is_male }
#=> #<struct Person name="Erica", tall=true, male=false>
and finally print a welcome message:
print "Hello #{user.name}, Welcome"

Answer 2

If you want to get char then use
char = STDIN.getc.chr
below is another way with your working script
puts "Are you tall"
is_tall = gets.chomp()[0].downcase == "y"
puts "Are you male"
is_male = gets.chomp()[0].downcase == "y"
result =
if is_tall && !is_male
"Hello Erica, Welcome"
elsif !is_tall && is_male
"Hello Nikola"
elsif !is_tall && is_male
"Hello Cathie"
elsif is_tall && is_tall
"Hello Adam"
end
print result

Answer 3

Map you info
You can use a Hash to store your data:
people = { male: { tall: 'Adam', short: 'Nikola' }, female: { tall: 'Erica', short: 'Cathie' } }
Define the way to interact with user
You need to get the answer from the user and validate it. This is one way using those methods:
def get_sex
message = 'Is this person male?'
get_user_input(message) ? :male : :female
end
def get_heigh
message = 'Is this person tall?'
get_user_input(message) ? :tall : :short
end
The methods above call a common method that loops and interact with the user, providing her with the information about the accepted answer:
def get_user_input(message)
valid_answers = {true: ['y', 'yes', 'true'], false: ['n', 'no', 'false']}
3.downto(1) do |n|
puts "Valid answers are #{valid_answers[:true]} or #{valid_answers[:false]}."
puts "(Default answer will be 'no' after #{n} times again."
puts message
user_input = gets.chomp
return true if valid_answers[:true].include? user_input
return false if valid_answers[:false].include? user_input
end
puts "Took 'no' as default answer\n\n"
end
Make use of it
Finally, just get the name by calling
name = people[get_sex][get_heigh]
When you have more people, consider to use a different mapping, something like
people = [{ name: 'Adam', heigh: 190, sex: :male }, { name: 'Erica', heigh: 175, sex: :female }, ...
Of course accessing the data is a bit different, you should look at Enumerable documentation (and also Array and Hash).