FAQ: Thith Meanth War! - Setting Up the 'If' Branch, Part 2

This community-built FAQ covers the “Setting Up the ‘If’ Branch, Part 2” exercise from the lesson “Thith Meanth War!”.

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FAQs on the exercise Setting Up the ‘If’ Branch, Part 2

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My code, that wasn’t accepted:

print "Please enter a string. "
user_input = gets.chomp.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s"
	user_input.gsub!(/s/, "th")
end

Solution:

print "Pleathe enter a thtring: " 
user_input = gets.chomp
user_input.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s"
  user_input.gsub!(/s/, "th")
end

It’s the same, no?

1 Like

" The syntax looks like this: rb string_to_change.gsub!(/s/, "th") "

Why is “rb” infront of the “string_to_change”?

4 Likes

Chaining the downcase method will behave as expected IF we don’ t attach the bang method. With the bang method the user input MUST contain at least one uppercase letter else the method will return nil. That will throw an error on the include? method… nil class has no attribute, include?.

As for why the author chose not to chain, only they can tell us that. The SCT is not exhaustive so we will have to expect some of our working solutions to not be accepted. Such is the case.

1 Like

Remember to print your user_input

This is how mine looks like

print "What are you thinking?"
user_input = gets.chomp
user_input.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s"
  user_input.gsub!(/s/,"th")
else
  print "not cool"
end

print "This is what you said #{user_input}"

print “This is what you said #{user_input}”

1 Like

I keep getting this code rejected though it is almost identical to the first lesson

print "Please input your string: "
user_input=gets.chomp
user_input=gets.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s" 
  user_input.gsub!(/s/, "th")
else
  puts "error 1"
end

puts "This is what you said #{user_input}"

Solution:

print "Please input your string: "
user_input=gets.chomp
user_input.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s" 
  user_input.gsub!(/s/, "th")
else
  puts "error 1"
end

puts "This is what you said #{user_input}"

Dont do gets.downcase

1 Like

This form of statement is an assignment that will be one of two outcomes,

  1. the user’s input transformed, provided there is at least one capital letter; else,
  2. nil (when there are no capital letters in the input).

The above is in-place, meaning the method acts directly upon the string object. In its present state (without puts) the object will either be transformed (contains capital letter(s)) or remain as is (no capitals present in original string).

s = 'forty-two'
s.downcase!
puts s    # forty-two

s = 'forty-two'
puts s.downcase!    #  nil (a blank line)
1 Like

SACK OF CRAP! The instructions do not make sense, noting is clear to understand for beginners! this is my code

print "Pleathe enter a thtring: " 
user_input = gets.chomp
user_input.downcase!

if user_input.include? "s"
  user_input.gsub!(/s/, "th")

It is identical to the example but it would not let me proceed, why?

My apologies if I have missed an explanation on this, but looking for the “why” here:

Why is it that, when using the following code and providing an input with no uppercase letters at all, user_input becomes nil?

user_input = gets.chomp.downcase!

I can see that it does it, and it appears to do the same when I try running this from irb in the macOS Terminal as well - I tried it there to verify. I see that the solution did not string the methods together. Trying to understand the reason why this does not work, not just looking for the solve.

I believe it is missing the end to close out the if statement?

1 Like

gets means get string, and the .chomp method removes trailing white space. The string is referable and assignable.

puts gets.chomp      # referrable

user = gets.chomp    # assignable

We can also chain downcase with equal effect owing that the methods are associated with the reference or assignment.

The bang operator modifies a method expression since it carries out the method it is chained to, but when no change takes place in the operation it has nothing to write back onto the reference or assignment and ends up yielding nil.

If we attempt to invoke a class method on nil (that is not a nilClass method) it will raise an error. .include? is a method of the String class, hence the error.

2 Likes

Makes sense - thank you for the detailed response!

1 Like