Fancy String Methods

Learn to Program, Third Edition — by Chris Pine (31 / 116)

👈 Chapter 5 Methods | TOC | More Arithmetic 👉

Let’s learn a few fun string methods. You don’t have to memorize them all; you can look up this page again if you forget them. I want to show you a small part of what strings can do. In fact, I can’t remember even half of the string methods myself — but that’s fine, because the Internet has great references with all of the string methods listed and explained. (I’ll show you where to find them in Chapter 15, ​Beyond This Book​.) Actually, I don’t even want to know all the string methods. It’s kind of like knowing every word in the dictionary: I can speak English just fine without knowing every word in the dictionary.

The first string method is reverse, which returns a reversed version of the string:

​1: var1 = ​"stop"​ 
​2: var2 = ​"deliver repaid desserts"​
​3: var3 = ​"....TCELES B HSUP - A magic spell?"​
​4: 
​5: puts var1.​reverse​
​6: puts var2.​reverse​
​7: puts var3.​reverse​
​8: puts var1
​9: puts var2
​10: puts var3
​<= pots
​ stressed diaper reviled
​ ?lleps cigam A - PUSH B SELECT....
​ stop
​ deliver repaid desserts
​ ....TCELES B HSUP - A magic spell?

That third string is a spoiler from Final Fantasy 1 (or, as we called it at the time, Final Fantasy, back when the word “final” used to mean something). There’s a statute of limitations on spoilers, right?