Ruby Console: Puts, Print and stdin

Console. Programs are often run with console input and output.

We use the puts, print and p methods in Ruby to display text (or other data types).

With stdin, we handle input from the console. Operators like << are helpful. And often a loop is used to create an interactive console program with a prompt.

An example. We begin with a simple program. Here the puts method writes a line to the console window. It writes each argument to a separate line.

Tip: To combine multiple parts on a single line, we can concatenate strings. We use << or + for this.

String: It sometimes is necessary to use the String constructor to convert integers to strings.

Array: When displaying an array, puts will place each element onto a separate line.

Based on:

Ruby 2

Ruby program that uses puts

value = 100

# Print values on separate lines.
# ... Parentheses are optional.
puts value
puts("FINISHED")

# Use << to append a string.
puts "VALUE " << String(value)

# Use + to append.
puts "VALUE " + String(value)

# Print all Array elements on separate lines.
elements = [10, 100, 1000]
puts elements

Output

100
FINISHED
VALUE 100
VALUE 100
10
100
1000

P method. Let us continue with the P method. This one is good for lazy programmers. It displays data in a literal way—it includes quotes around a string, for example.

And: P displays an Array or Hash on a single line. This is convenient and often a good choice.

Tip: As with other methods in Ruby, parentheses are optional. Usually "p" is used without parentheses.

Ruby program that uses p method

# Use p method.
p "cat"

# Write an array.
items = [5, 55, 555]
p items

# Write a hash.
lookup = {"cat" => 4, "bird" => 2}
p lookup

# Use p to write two strings on one line.
part1 = "HELLO"
part2 = "WORLD"
p part1 << "... " << part2

# Nil is displayed as nil.
p(nil)

Output

"cat"
[5, 55, 555]
{"cat"=>4, "bird"=>2}
"HELLO... WORLD"
nil

Print. This method appends no newlines to text. We can thus use many print statements, one after another, on a single line. But we must also print a newline manually.

Tip: Print() is a good choice for lines that are built up in many steps. We can avoid concatenating strings ourselves.

Ruby program that uses print

# Print statements on the same line.
print "dog"
print " is cute"
print "\n"

# Print entire-line statements.
print "There are " << String(4) << " apples.\n"
print "I ate a lemon.\n"

# Print a multiline statement.
print "***\nYou are a winner!\n***\n"

Output

dog is cute
There are 4 apples.
I ate a lemon.
***
You are a winner!
***

Stdin. We can read a line from the console with $stdin.readline. This method returns a string. The stdin source can be configured but by default it is set to the keyboard on the console.

Ruby program that uses stdin

# Read line from console window.
line = $stdin.readline()

# Display the string.
puts "You typed: " << line

Output

cat
You typed: cat

Interactive. An interactive console program can be developed with $stdin.readline. First we enter a while-true loop—this continues indefinitely.

Begin: We use a begin, rescue, ensure construct to handle errors and run some code after the selection is made.

Integer: We convert the text entered by the user into an Integer. This makes it easier to test for values.

Integer

Case: The case statement tests the integer we received. We handle the values 0 through 3 in special ways.

Case

Ruby program that uses stdin, interactive loop

while true
    print "Type a number: "
    line = $stdin.readline()
    begin
        # Convert string to integer.
        number = Integer(line)
        # Handle various cases.
        case number
            when 0
                puts "Zero"
            when 1, 2, 3
                puts "One to three"
            else
                puts "Other"
        end
    rescue
        # Let the loop continue.
        puts "Invalid"
    ensure
        puts "Done"
    end
end

Output

Type a number: 0
Zero
Done
Type a number: 2
One to three
Done
Type a number: X
Invalid
Done

A summary. Ruby, as an interpreted language, is well-suited to developer or server tasks. For user programs, a compiled language is often a better choice.

But for developers, console programs are easy-to-maintain and efficient. With print(), puts() and the concise P method, we easily output text to an output stream.

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