Join the social network of Tech Nerds, increase skill rank, get work, manage projects...
 
  • Blocks in Ruby

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 247
    Comment on it

    A block is a chunk of code that we put inside do..end or {}. You can use any of the both ways. But multiline block (do..end) is preferred over inline({}) block.

     

    Example of block:

    multiline style#
    
    ["red", "green", "yellow"].each do |color|
      puts "Color: #{color}"
    end

     

    inline style#

    ["red", "green", "yellow"].each{|color| puts "Color: #{color}"}
    
    The output will remain same for both style.

    NOTE: Block has no significant use unless passed to a method. We can not assign block to a variable.


    Passing block to a method:

    def hello
      puts "called first"
      yield
      puts "called at last"
    end
    
    
    hello do
      puts "called by yield"
    end

     

    Output:

    called first
    called by yield
    called at last

     => nil

     

    yield passes the execution to block. After block is executed, the execution of the method continues.

    Method need not to specify the block in its parameters signature. We can pass block to any method, However that needs to be called by yield inside the method. Block won't be executed unless yield executes it or a Proc object is created. Please note if yield is called inside the method we have to pass the block to method otherwise it will throw exception.

     

    NOTE: We can use the block_given? method which returns true/false depending on if a block was passed in to the method or not.

     

    Example 1:

    def say_hello
      puts "block will not be executed"
    end
    
    
    say_hello {puts "It will not be called"}
    block will not be executed
    => nil


    Example 2:

    def say_hello
      puts "yield will not be called if block not passed to method"
      yield if block_given?
    end
    
    
    say_hello
    yield will not be called if block not passed to method
    => nil

     

    say_hello{puts "now yield will be executed"}
    yield will not be called if block not passed to method
    now yield will be executed
    => nil

     

    Example 3:

    def say_hello
      puts "A new proc object will take block as argument and will execute block when called"
      proc = Proc.new
      proc.call
    end
    
    
    say_hello{puts "block executed !!!"}
    A new proc object will take block as argument and will execute block when called
    block executed !!!
    => nil

    If block is not passed the creating new proc object will throw exception.


    Passing block in argument signature of method:

    We can pass block to a method as parameter to a method. Method takes last argument as a block.  Please note it has to be the last argument, other it will throw exception. Also the block signature needs to have & prefix. It creates a proc object and passed to the method. Proc can be called any time inside the method.

    def say_hello(&block)
      block.call
    end
    
    
    say_hello{puts "this is passed as a parameter in method"}
    this is passed as argument in method
     => nil


    Passing parameters to Yield:

    We can also pass parameters to yield

    def double_me(n)
      yield(n)
    end
    
    
    double_me(2){|number| 2*number}
     => 4

    As we can see yield returns the last evaluated expression from inside the block.

     

 0 Comment(s)

Sign In
                           OR                           
                           OR                           
Register

Sign up using

                           OR                           
Forgot Password
Fill out the form below and instructions to reset your password will be emailed to you:
Reset Password
Fill out the form below and reset your password: