Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trialMaryAnn Eleanya
8,626 PointsI am not sure what a block of code is supposed to do.
https://teamtreehouse.com/library/build-an-address-book-in-ruby/class-design/phone-number-class
"I am struggling with a few lines of code from this video. I've attached the link to the video above and the code is also in the teacher's note."
def last_first
last_first = last_name
last_first += ", "
last_first += first_name
if !@middle_name.nil?
last_first += " "
last_first += middle_name.slice(0, 1)
last_first += "."
end
last_first
"First, I am not really sure what the code above is supposed to do. There is also a similar version of it for the full_name variable."
def to_s(format = 'full_name')
case format
when 'full_name'
full_name
when 'last_first'
last_first
when 'first'
first_name
when 'last'
last_name
else
first_last
end
end
"Secondly, I know this code is supposed to turn the variable into strings but I've never seen it formatted this way before. I am also not sure what the word 'case format' means."
[MOD: edited code block - srh]
1 Answer
Steven Parker
231,236 PointsThe code in your first question builds up the "last_first" variable:
- it starts with the contents of "last_name"
- then it adds a comma and a space
- then it adds the contents of "first_name"
- then, only if "middle_name" is not empty, it adds a space and then the first letter from "middle_name"
- finally, it adds a period to the end
In the second question, the word "case" begins a conditional based on the variable "format". It is compared to the term after each "when" to determine if the expression that follows it should be returned.