Naming a new file with timestamp? - ruby

Question

I'm trying to write a simple command line program that lets me keep track of how many times I get distracted during a study session.
I'm getting an argument error when I run this code saying my file.open has invalid arguments. If I want to name each new_session file with a timestamp, what would be a simple solution?
def first_question
puts "Would you like to start a new session?"
answer = gets.chomp
answer = answer.downcase
if answer == "yes"
new_session
else
puts "Ok. Would you like to review a previous session?"
prev_session = gets.chomp
prev_session.downcase
if prev_session == "yes"
#GET AND REVIEW PREVIOUS SESSIONS
elsif prev_session == "no"
puts "Well if you don't want a new session, and you don't want to review your old sessions, then you're SOL."
else
"That's not an acceptable response."
first_question
end
end
end
def new_session
distractions = 0
d = File.open("Session"+Time.now.to_s , 'w'){|f| f.write(distractions) }
puts "What would you like to do (add track(s) or review tracks)?"
request = gets.chomp
request.downcase
if request == "add track"
distractions = distractions.to_i + 1
puts "You have #{distractions} tracks in this session."
elsif request == "add tracks"
puts "How many times have you been distracted since we last met?"
answer = gets.chomp
distractions = distractions.to_i + answer.to_i
puts "You have #{distractions} tracks."
elsif request == "review tracks"
puts distractions
end
File.open( d , 'w') {|f| f.write(distractions) }
end
first_question

Answer 1

Most of your code is messy and redundant. The problem you are referring to, though, comes from here:
d = File.open("Session"+Time.now.to_s , 'w'){|f| f.write(distractions) }
d will be the number of bytes written to the file and thus a Fixnum. You can't open a Fixnum which you're trying to do in the last line of the function.
Further,
request = gets.chomp
request.downcase
The second line here does nothing.

Answer 2

You have two File.open statements:
d = File.open("Session"+Time.now.to_s , 'w'){|f| f.write(distractions) }
and:
File.open( d , 'w') {|f| f.write(distractions) }
Your error code will tell you which one is wrong, but, from looking at them, I'd say it's the second one.
d will be assigned the result of the block for the first File.open, which is going to be the result of f.write(distractions):
The File.open docs say:
The value of the block will be returned from File.open.
The File.write docs say:
Returns the number of bytes written.
As a result, you are assigning d a number of bytes, then trying to create a file with an integer for a filename, which is an error because a filename MUST be a string.
That leads to a bigger problem, which is, your code makes no sense.
d = File.open("Session"+Time.now.to_s , 'w'){|f| f.write(distractions) } writes a 0 to the file created by "Session"+Time.now.to_s.
request.downcase converts the contents of request to lowercase and immediately throws it away. Perhaps you meant request.downcase!, but it'd be better to write:
request = gets.chomp
request.downcase
As:
request = gets.chomp.downcase
distractions = distractions.to_i + 1? distractions is already 0 which is a Fixnum. You're converting a Fixnum to an integer using to_i then adding 1 to it. Simply do:
distractions += 1
distractions = distractions.to_i + answer.to_i should be:
distractions += answer.to_i
File.open( d , 'w') {|f| f.write(distractions) }, because it's trying to write to a file with the integer name, won't update your original file. If it succeeded, it'd write to an entirely new file, which would end up overwriting the previously created file, which was the result of writing a single 0 to disk. Instead, d should be the name of the file previously created.
Consider this:
def new_session
distractions = 0
puts "What would you like to do (add track(s) or review tracks)?"
request = gets.chomp.downcase
case request
when "add track"
distractions += 1
puts "You have #{distractions} tracks in this session."
when "add tracks"
puts "How many times have you been distracted since we last met?"
distractions += gets.chomp.to_i
puts "You have #{distractions} tracks."
when "review tracks"
puts distractions
end
File.write( "Session" + Time.now.to_s, distractions)
end
This code is cleaner, and makes more sense now.