I am new to ruby and am trying to learn how yield works. I am using yield in the following way to read characters in a file with help of a function. The return value of this function is input to another function which extracts words based on spaces. However, I am getting the following error while execution:
in `block (2 levels) in getchars': no block given (yield) (LocalJumpError)
Here is the code snippet generating error:
def getchars(file)
IO.readlines(file).each {|line| line.each_char {|chrc| yield chrc }}
end
Can someone please help me understand what am I doing wrong? Thanks.
Addition:
This is how I make call:
def getwords(file)
#st_char = true
getchars(file).each {|c|
if #st_char == true
#word = ""
if c.match(/^[[:alnum:]]+$/)
#word = c
#st_char = false
end
else
if c.match(/^[[:alnum:]]+$/)
#word = #word + c
else
#st_char = true
yield #word
end
end
}
end
You need to pass a code block to getchars for it to yield to.
something like,
getchars("example.txt") {|char| puts char}
Then inside your get chars, it will yield each char one at a time to the supplied code block - which simply puts them out.
I think the error message is pretty clear: getchars tries to yield to a block, but whoever called getchars didnt' pass a block.
In line 2 of getwords, you call getchars without passing a block. You need to pass a block to getchars, so it has something to yield to.
file_as_string = File.read("greetings.txt") # => "hey hello hola vanakam"
array_of_words_after_splitting_by_spaces = file_as_string.split(" ") # => ["hey", "hello", "hola", "vanakam"]
Warning: Please don't use such variable names, just used it to explicitly see whats happening
Related
I'm trying to get an if statement for users who put incorrect data.
Here's my code:
class Breweries::CLI
def start
puts "Hello!"
puts "---------------------------"
puts "Please enter your location:"
input = gets.strip.downcase
#data = Breweries::API.get_breweries(input)
#objects = Breweries::HoppyCode.all
if input.length < 1
puts "Sorry!!"
puts "```````"
start
else
display_info
end
end
def display_info
puts "You'll love the following spots!"
puts "********************************"
#objects.each.with_index(1) {|brewery, index| puts "#{index}. #{brewery.name}"}
puts "Please make a selection by index number for more information:"
input = gets.strip.downcase
if(input.to_i > 0)
#brewery = #objects[input.to_i - 1]
puts "name: #{#brewery.name}"
puts "street: #{#brewery.street}"
puts "city: #{#brewery.city}"
puts "phone: #{#brewery.phone}"
puts "website_url: #{#brewery.website_url}"
display_info
elsif (input == "quit")
quit
elsif (input == "menu")
start
end
end
def quit
puts "Goodbye. Drink responsibly and enjoy."
end
end
When I put something that would generate an error, it returns the following:
Please enter your location: nvifpejvf80ejvip
Traceback (most recent call last):
2: from bin/breweriesCLI:6:in `<main>'
1: from /home/munificent-format-5297/Development/breweries/lib/breweries/cli.rb:8:in `start' /home/munificent-format-5297/Development/breweries/lib/breweries/api.rb:6:in `get_breweries': undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
How can I solve the undefined method '[]' error? Here's the API code in case that's necessary.
class Breweries::API
def self.get_breweries(input)
#breweries_hash = HTTParty.get("https://api.openbrewerydb.org/breweries?by_city=#{input}")
breweries_obj = {
name: #breweries_hash[1]["name"],
street: #breweries_hash[3]["street"],
city: #breweries_hash[4]["city"],
phone: #breweries_hash[10]["phone"],
website_url: #breweries_hash[11]["website_url"]
}
Breweries::HoppyCode.new(breweries_obj)
end
end
When the input is invalid, the call to
#breweries_hash = HTTParty.get("...")
returns not the object you expect (I’d suggest it returns an empty hash.) That makes it impossible to get to details in the following lines. Depending on how are you to handle it, you might decide to e. g. early return from this function, or raise, or do something else.
To approach this, start with debugging the issue, like this:
#breweries_hash = HTTParty.get("...")
puts #breweries_hash.inspect
...
That way you’ll see what gets returned and get the ideas of how to handle it.
If I am right, and what is returned is an empty hash, you might want to early return from this function.
#breweries_hash = HTTParty.get("...")
return if #breweries_hash.empty?
...
Identifying the Problem
There are lots of ways to solve for the nil problem, but at a quick glance it seems like part of the problem here is that you're somehow expecting input to return a valid Hash object from your API call, but an empty String or an instance of FalseClass may not do that. Consider the following:
input = gets.strip.downcase # <RETURN> here gets an empty string
input #=> ""
input.to_i > 0 #=> false
Then consider that some downstream of Breweries::API.get_breweries is expecting to operate on a Hash object instead if an instance of NilClass. In this case, that looks like #breweries_hash[1]["name"] and other operations on #breweries_hash.
Some Options
Without knowing more about your code, I don't want to be prescriptive here. But in general, you can do one or more of the following:
Coerce arguments into the expected class in the method call, the method signature, or the method body. For example, for Array objects:
# coerce a String to an Array, raising an exception if it can't
input = ""
Array(input)
#=> [""]
# coerce some Array to a Hash
array = [:name, "foo", :street, "bar"]
Array(array.each_slice 2).to_h
#=> {:name=>"foo", :street=>"bar"}
Explicitly check that you have an Hash object:
fail "#breweries is not a Hash" unless #breweries.is_a? Hash
Raise an exception rather than return 0 if input isn't actually a valid Integer representation in the first place:
input = Integer(gets.strip.downcase)
Check if your Hash or Array object responds to the relevant method calls, and raise a more helpful exception message:
raise sprintf("#brewery: %s", #brewery.class) unless #brewery.respond_to? :[]
There are other things you might do as well. Broadly speaking, you need to adjust your code to check the return value of your call to ensure it's not nil, then branch/raise/rescue appropriately depending on whether or not you ever expect nils as a valid return value from Breweries::API.get_breweries.
A Note on Using Exceptions for Non-Exceptional Circumstances
As a rule of thumb, you should only raise exceptions for truly unexpected circumstances, or when the program should halt because some condition can't (or shouldn't) be handled within the program during runtime. Which is best in your particular use case is really a design decision, and outside the scope of the original question. However, you might want to read Avdi Grimm's Exceptional Ruby for a deeper explanation of when exceptions might better than branching or handlers (or vice versa), but the choice in your code is a little left of center of the problem you're actually dealing with right now.
I call a method with a block;
method do
"Hello"
end
and the method is defined as;
def method
yield
end
and when defining method; i want to check if given block is empty (nil) or not, because the variable in the method may end up like this;
method do
""
end
So in definition, i want to check if the yield block is nil or not. Like;
def method
if yield ? yield : "Empty block? Seriously?"
end
I know the above does not work. Bu it is what i want to achieve.
Also keep in mind that block_given? will always be "true" since the block is given even if it is nil or empty string.
UPDATE: As most of the comments/answers state that the question is unclear; here is the problem simplified by #ndn:
I want to check if the result of executing a block is "empty"(nil or "") without
invoking it first.
It is unclear what you are asking, because a block itself can not be empty. Therefore, you might mean a few different things:
A missing block. You can check if a block is given
block_given?
Block with empty body (aka {} or do end). This is not impossible, but requires some advanced voodoo ruby metaprogramming magic. Generally, if this is what you are looking for, either you are writing something very interesting or your approach is completely wrong.
You want to check if the result of executing a block is "empty" without invoking it first. This is impossible. For example, consider the following block:
{ [nil, "", true].sample }
Obviously, there is no way to know in advance.
You are ok with calling the block. Then you can assign the result to a variable and make checks on it:
def some_method
evaluation_result = yield if block_given?
if evaluation_result.nil? or evaluation_result == ""
# do something if the block was not given or the result is nil/empty
puts "Empty block? Seriously?"
else
# do something if the block was given and the result is non nil/empty
puts evaluation_result
end
end
Now when you invoke some_method:
some_method { "something" } # => "something"
some_method { 3 + 5 } # => 8
some_method { nil } # => "Empty block? Seriously?"
some_method { "" } # => "Empty block? Seriously?"
some_method { } # => "Empty block? Seriously?"
some_method # => "Empty block? Seriously?"
EDIT:
A workaround for case #3 might be to create two procs, one with what you want to do if the block is "empty" and one - if it is not, then pass them around to the endpoint where you will finally invoke the block. This might or might not be applicable depending on your exact situation.
EDIT2:
Another workaround can be to redefine the Proc#call method for your proc instances. However, this doesn't work for yield:
def secure(&block)
insecure_call = block.method(:call)
block.define_singleton_method(:call) do
insecure_call_result = insecure_call.call
if insecure_call_result.nil? or insecure_call_result == ""
"<b>Bummer! Empty block...</b>"
else
insecure_call_result
end
end
end
x = proc { }
y = proc { "" }
z = proc { nil }
a = proc { 3 + 5 }
b = proc { "something" }
u = proc { [nil, "", true].sample }
[x, y, z, a, b, u].each { |block| secure &block }
# some method that uses the block
def user(&block)
"What I got is #{block.call}!"
end
user &x # => "What I got is <b>Bummer! Empty block...</b>!"
user &y # => "What I got is <b>Bummer! Empty block...</b>!"
user &z # => "What I got is <b>Bummer! Empty block...</b>!"
user &a # => "What I got is 8!"
user &b # => "What I got is something!"
user &u # => Different each time
EDIT3: Another alternative, which is sort of cheating, is to wrap the given proc in another proc. This way, it will work for yield too.
def wrap(&block)
proc do
internal_proc_call_result = block.call
if internal_proc_call_result.nil? or internal_proc_call_result == ""
"<b>Bummer! Empty block...</b>"
else
internal_proc_call_result
end
end
end
Now using the result of wrap and will get you behavior similar to secure.
If I understand correctly, you want to statically determine what the runtime value of a block is. This is one of the many known impossible problems resulting from the undecidability of the Halting Problem.
In other words: it can't be done.
Not "it can't be done in Ruby", not "it is hard", it simply can't be done, period. And it can be (and has been) mathematically proven that it can't be done. Ever.
UPDATED Answer
My last effort to simplify the answer based on comments..
You can check for block emptiness with block_given? and you need to explicitly check for yield output for emptiness like below
def method(&block)
# Below if condition is to prove that block can be accessed
if block_given?
p block
p block.yield
end
b = yield if block_given?
(b.nil? || b.empty?) ? "Empty block? Seriously?" : b
end
p method {"Hello"} # inline block
result = method do
"World"
end
p result
p method # No blocks provided
p method {""} # Block that returns empty string
Output of the program
"Hello"
"World"
"Empty block? Seriously?"
"Empty block? Seriously?"
I try to implement search function which looks for occurrence for particular keyword, but if --max options is provided it will print only some particular number of lines.
def search_in_file(path_to_file, keyword)
seen = false
File::open(path_to_file) do |f|
f.each_with_index do |line, i|
if line.include? keyword
# print path to file before only if there occurence of keyword in a file
unless seen
puts path_to_file.to_s.blue
seen = true
end
# print colored line
puts "#{i+1}:".bold.gray + "#{line}".sub(keyword, keyword.bg_red)
break if i == #opt[:max] # PROBLEM WITH THIS!!!
end
end
end
puts "" if seen
end
I try to use break statement, but when it's within if ... end block I can't break out from outer each_with_index block.
If I move break outside if ... end it works, but it's not what I want.
How I can deal with this?
Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure how to implement it in your code as I'm still learning Ruby, but you can try catch and throw to solve this.
def search_in_file(path_to_file, keyword)
seen = false
catch :limit_reached do
#put your code to look in file here...
throw :limit_reached if i == #opt[:max] #this will break and take you to the end of catch block
Something like this already exist here
Can anyone help me to figure out the the use of yield and return in Ruby. I'm a Ruby beginner, so simple examples are highly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!
The return statement works the same way that it works on other similar programming languages, it just returns from the method it is used on.
You can skip the call to return, since all methods in ruby always return the last statement. So you might find method like this:
def method
"hey there"
end
That's actually the same as doing something like:
def method
return "hey there"
end
The yield on the other hand, excecutes the block given as a parameter to the method. So you can have a method like this:
def method
puts "do somthing..."
yield
end
And then use it like this:
method do
puts "doing something"
end
The result of that, would be printing on screen the following 2 lines:
"do somthing..."
"doing something"
Hope that clears it up a bit. For more info on blocks, you can check out this link.
yield is used to call the block associated with the method. You do this by placing the block (basically just code in curly braces) after the method and its parameters, like so:
[1, 2, 3].each {|elem| puts elem}
return exits from the current method, and uses its "argument" as the return value, like so:
def hello
return :hello if some_test
puts "If it some_test returns false, then this message will be printed."
end
But note that you don't have to use the return keyword in any methods; Ruby will return the last statement evaluated if it encounters no returns. Thus these two are equivelent:
def explicit_return
# ...
return true
end
def implicit_return
# ...
true
end
Here's an example for yield:
# A simple iterator that operates on an array
def each_in(ary)
i = 0
until i >= ary.size
# Calls the block associated with this method and sends the arguments as block parameters.
# Automatically raises LocalJumpError if there is no block, so to make it safe, you can use block_given?
yield(ary[i])
i += 1
end
end
# Reverses an array
result = [] # This block is "tied" to the method
# | | |
# v v v
each_in([:duck, :duck, :duck, :GOOSE]) {|elem| result.insert(0, elem)}
result # => [:GOOSE, :duck, :duck, :duck]
And an example for return, which I will use to implement a method to see if a number is happy:
class Numeric
# Not the real meat of the program
def sum_of_squares
(to_s.split("").collect {|s| s.to_i ** 2}).inject(0) {|sum, i| sum + i}
end
def happy?(cache=[])
# If the number reaches 1, then it is happy.
return true if self == 1
# Can't be happy because we're starting to loop
return false if cache.include?(self)
# Ask the next number if it's happy, with self added to the list of seen numbers
# You don't actually need the return (it works without it); I just add it for symmetry
return sum_of_squares.happy?(cache << self)
end
end
24.happy? # => false
19.happy? # => true
2.happy? # => false
1.happy? # => true
# ... and so on ...
Hope this helps! :)
def cool
return yield
end
p cool {"yes!"}
The yield keyword instructs Ruby to execute the code in the block. In this example, the block returns the string "yes!". An explicit return statement was used in the cool() method, but this could have been implicit as well.
I am learning Ruby and I have a bug I cannot understand. I have a method that takes an array of strings (lines) and removes all lines up to a certain line containing a pattern.
The method looks as follows:
def removeHeaderLines(lines)
pattern = "..." # Some pattern.
# If the pattern is not there, do not drop any lines.
prefix = lines.take_while {|line| (not line.match(pattern))}
if prefix.length == lines.length then
return prefix
end
# The pattern is there: remove all line preceding it, as well as the line
# containing it.
suffix = (lines.drop_while {|line| (not line.match(pattern))}).drop(1)
return suffix
end
This works fine and the resulting strings (lines) are displayed correctly on a web page
I am generating.
Additionally, I want to remove all non-empty lines following the pattern. I have modified the method as follows:
def removeHeaderLines(lines)
pattern = "..." # Some pattern.
# If the pattern is not there, do not drop any lines.
prefix = lines.take_while {|line| (not line.match(pattern))}
if prefix.length == lines.length then
return prefix
end
# The pattern is there: remove all line preceding it, as well as the line
# containing it.
suffix = (lines.drop_while {|line| (not line.match(pattern))}).drop(1)
# Remove leading non-empty lines.
# ADDING THIS INTRODUCES A BUG.
body = suffix.drop_while {|line| (line != "")}
return body
end
Very surprisingly (at least for me) this does not work. On the generated web page, instead of the content, I see the error message: Liquid error: undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass.
I cannot make much sense out of this message. As far as I understand, some code calling my code has tried to access a non-array object as if it were an array. But both versions
of my method return an array of strings (both variables suffix and body are set to an array of strings), so why should there be a difference?
So, unfortunately, also due to my scarce knowledge of Ruby, I have no clue as to how to debug this problem.
Does anybody see any mistake in the above code? Alternatively, does anybody have any hints as to what can cause the error "undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass"?
EDIT
Additional information. I am extending code that I have not written myself (it comes from
Octopress, file plugins/include_code.rb). The original
rendering code looks like this:
def render(context)
code_dir = (context.registers[:site].config['code_dir'].sub(/^\//,'') || 'downloads/code')
code_path = (Pathname.new(context.registers[:site].source) + code_dir).expand_path
file = code_path + #file
if File.symlink?(code_path)
return "Code directory '#{code_path}' cannot be a symlink"
end
unless file.file?
return "File #{file} could not be found"
end
Dir.chdir(code_path) do
##################################
# I have replaced the line below #
##################################
code = file.read
#filetype = file.extname.sub('.','') if #filetype.nil?
title = #title ? "#{#title} (#{file.basename})" : file.basename
url = "/#{code_dir}/#{#file}"
source = "<figure class='code'><figcaption><span>#{title}</span> <a href='#{url}'>download</a></figcaption>\n"
source += " #{highlight(code, #filetype)}</figure>"
safe_wrap(source)
end
end
I have replaced the line
code = file.read
with
code = linesToString(removeHeaderLines(stringToLines(file.read)))
where the two missing methods are:
def stringToLines(string)
ar = Array.new
string.each_line {|line| ar.push(line)}
return ar
end
def linesToString(lines)
s = ""
lines.each {|line| s.concat(line)}
return s
end
I hope this helps.
EDIT 2
Thanks to Hassan's hint (use the join method) I have found the problem!
Parallel to the join method there exists a split method. So
"A\nB\n".split(/\n/)
gives
["A", "B"]
Whereas by using each_line (as I did), one gets each line with the '\n' at the end.
As a consequence
suffix.drop_while {|line| (line != "")}
drops all lines. The result was an empty string that apparently crashes the library
I am using. Thanks to Hassan for indicating a more idiomatic solution. I have now the
following:
def removeHeaderLines(code)
lines = code.split(/\r?\n/)
pat = /.../ # Some pattern.
index = lines.index {|line| line =~ pat}
lines = lines.drop(index + 1).drop_while {|line| line != ""} unless index.nil?
lines.join "\n"
end
and it works fine.
That exception occurs when you attempt to use nil like an array (or hash):
irb(main):001:0> nil[0]
NoMethodError: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
from (irb):1
from /home/mslade/rubygems1.9/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
or use a variable as an array (or hash) when it has not been initialised:
irb(main):005:0> #b[0]
NoMethodError: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
from (irb):5
from /home/mslade/rubygems1.9/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
Look for where you have neglected to initalize the array, with something like #b = []
If you are not actually using an array, then it's possible that a funciton you are calling expects one. Scan through the stak dump given, starting at the top, until it mentions a line of your code. Then investigate that line to see what you might have missed.
I don't know what cause the exception, but your code could be like this:
def remove_header_lines(lines)
pattern = /some pat/
index = lines.index {|lines| lines =~ pattern}
lines = lines.drop(index+1).drop_while {|lines| line != ""} unless index.nil?
lines.join
end