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Ruby Build an Address Book in Ruby Class Design Phone Number Class

MaryAnn Eleanya
MaryAnn Eleanya
8,626 Points
Posted by MaryAnn Eleanya
MaryAnn Eleanya
8,626 Points

I 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
Steven Parker
231,264 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,264 Points

The 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.