Learn Ruby Programming by Examples

Zhimin Zhan and Courtney Zhan

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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
What is unique about this book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Who should read this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
How to read this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Send me feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Ruby on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Ruby on Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Online Ruby Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Rhythm for Working on the exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Suggestions on Windows Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Type of errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.7 Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2. Printing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Print out Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Print out a half diamond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Print out diamond shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Print big diamond, name your size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

3. Quiz Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Simple Add Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Addition Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 Subtraction Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.4 Number Guessing Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CONTENTS

4. Array and Hash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4.1 Sort Children Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 Get the character from given alphabetical position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Calculate Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4 What makes 100% in life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

5. Useful Utility Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

5.1 Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2 Personal Income Tax Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.3 Word count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.4 Generate Lotto Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.5 Number sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6. Fun Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.1 Finding Divisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.2 Finding the Highest Common Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.3 Finding the Least Common Multiple (LCM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.4 Finding Prime Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.5 Fibonacci sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.6 Consecutive Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

7. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
7.1 Finding the Highest Common Factor (using method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.2 Generate Lotto Numbers (using a method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.3 Finding the LCM for multiple numbers (using method) . . . . . . . . . . . 94

8. File and Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

8.1 Calculate average score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.2 Count words and lines in a text file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.3 Mail merge birthday invitation cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
8.4 Rename files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.5 Currency exchange with live quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
8.6 Send individual thank you emails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
8.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

9. Object Oriented Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

CONTENTS

9.1 Calculator (Class) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

9.2 Age of Teacher and Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
9.3 Calculate Sales Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
9.4 Library System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
9.5 Sunflower vs Zombies Game Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
9.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

10. Classic Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

10.1 Google Labs Aptitude Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10.2 Fibonacci and HCF (Recursion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
10.3 Calculate Compound Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
10.4 Farmer Crosses River Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
10.5 Cryptic Math Equation (Backtracking) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
10.6 More Puzzle Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

11. Web Test Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

11.1 The best job is not far away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
11.2 Drive Internet Explorer with Watir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
11.3 Drive Firefox with Selenium WebDriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
11.4 Drive Chrome with Selenium WebDriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
11.5 Drive IE with Selenium WebDriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
11.6 Complete Test with Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
11.7 For more on test automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

12. Beyond This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

12.1 More Ruby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
12.2 More exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
12.3 Automated Testing with Ruby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
12.4 Web Programming with Ruby on Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
12.5 Game Programming and Mobile Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
12.6 Learn another programming language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Appendix 2 Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
CONTENTS

Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Code Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Ruby Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Ruby Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
More Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Test Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Preface
On December 8, 2013, US President Barack Obama asked every American to give it a shot
to learn to code (watch it here), kicking off the Hour of Code campaign for Computer
Science Education Week 2013. Learning these skills isnt just important for your future, its
important for our countrys future, President Obama said.
In February 2013, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and several other big names in IT want
kids to learn code (video). I particularly like the quote at the beginning of the video:

Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it

teaches you how to think. - Steve Jobs

You dont have to be an American to get the message: coding (aka. programming) is an
important skill for this information age. Besides the importance of programming, the other
message those VIPs also tried to convey is that you can do it.
As a programmer and software test automation coach, I have worked a lot with manual
testers. Manual testing can be repetitive and boring. However, automated testing (using test
scripts to drive software applications) is a fun, creative and satisfying job. Writing automated
test scripts requires programming skills.
When I introduced the idea of automated test scripts to manual testers, I could immediately
sense their fear: programming is too hard for me. This reaction is very typical and common.
Dont let the too hard phrase discourage you from learning. Let me tell you, programming
is not that hard, and it is fun.
Learning programming is a way to master communication with computers, by giving them
instructions to perform tasks for you. A programming language is a language that is used
to write instructions for computers to understand and execute. There are several popular
programming languages such as Java, C#, Ruby, and PHP. For beginners, dont fixate on
one. Computers internally work the same way, mastering thinking in programming is more
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i
Preface ii

important than one language syntax. In my opinion, different programming languages are
like dialects. I learned and taught myself over a dozen of programming languages. Once you
have mastered one, it is easy to learn another.
In this book, I will use Ruby, a popular and elegant programming language. Ruby is widely
used in enterprise business applications and software testing (Twitter was initially developed
in Ruby). The main reason I chose Ruby is that it is concise. Therefore, learners can focus
more on thinking rather than the syntax.

The most valuable programming skills to have on resume

According to the job research data, compiled from thousands of American job ads,
by Buring Glass with Brookings Institution economist Jonathan Rothwell in July 2014,
Ruby on Rails is the most valuable programming skills with average salary of $109,460.
Also, according to Mashables findings from the CyberCoders database of hundreds of
thousands of job postings, Ruby on Rails Developer is the one of top 5 lucrative tech
careers to pursue in 2015.
http://qz.com/298635/these-programming-languages-will-earn-you-the-most-money
http://mashable.com/2015/02/22/highest-paid-tech-jobs-2015/

I motivated my 13-year old daughter Courtney to learn programming with this book (with
the help of President Obamas video). She is the first reader of this book. In fact, I included her
thoughts and questions in this book, as well as some of her finished code for the exercises.
I think the mistakes Courtney made and the hurdles she faced could be helpful to others.
Courtney also designed the book cover and cute illustrations for all the questions, which
entitled her the co-author of this book.

What is unique about this book?

A typical how-to-program book will go through the programming concepts, syntax and
followed by demonstrations with simple examples. I have read dozens of them (for different
programming languages or tools) before and have taught this way at universities. It was not
an effective approach. It is more like a teacher dumping knowledge upon students. But I did
not know a better way, until I discovered The Michel Thomas Method.
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Preface iii

The Michel Thomas Method is developed by Michel Thomas for teaching foreign languages.
Thomas claimed that his students could achieve in three days what is not achieved in two to
three years at any college. My understanding of this method is that the teacher starts with
a simple conversation scenario, then gradually expands the scenario with a few new words
each time. That way, students are familiar with the conversation topic and the majority of
words or sentences, while learning some new, in real interesting conversations.
I believe this teaching method can be applied to programming. Not only a programming
language may also be considered as a language, but also very practical. The conversation
in speaking languages are exercises in programming. People learn better when they get
satisfaction or feedbacks and see their programs running.
As I said before, thinking in programming is much more important than being familiar with
a programming language. There is no better way than writing real programs for practical
exercises. In this book, I have chosen the exercises that are very simple to understand, besides
teaching values, they are useful and fun to do.
Besides programming tutorial books, there are also programming quiz books. I often find
some of those exercises are long and hard to understand. Quite commonly, the authors seem
to be fond of showing off their programming skills or smart solutions. It wont be the case in
this book. This book is a guide to programming and its purpose is to teach. After you finish all
the exercises, you will be able to write working programs, and with confidence to continue
to learn and grow.
In Chapter 11 (Automation), I will show what you have learnt may lead you to a promising
career: test automation engineer for web applications. Web applications are the main stream
nowadays. Due to its nature of rapid changes and multi-browser support, automated testing is
on demand. However, very few possess the skill. Programming + Automated Testing skills are
highly valued in software companies like Facebook: All Facebook engineers are responsible
for writing automated tests for their code.

Who should read this book

Everyone, for whatever reasons: job needs, career change, writing apps or games, or simply
to better understand how a computer program works.
In particular, I would strongly encourage young people to give it a go.
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Preface iv

How to read this book

It is highly recommended to read this book from page to page. The exercises are organized
into chapters, exercises within each chapter generally follows an easy-to-hard pattern.
The solutions for all exercises are also available on the books website.

Send me feedback

Wed appreciate your comments, suggestions, reports on errors in the book and code. You
may submit your feedback on the books site.
Zhimin Zhan and Courtney Zhan
November 2014

http://zhimin.com/books/learn-ruby-programming-by-examples
1. Introduction
I still remember my first programming lesson. The first sentence the coach said was
computers are not mysterious. Nobody uses the term mysterious to describe computers
nowadays. It was the case in 1980s, computers were rare back then.
We are in the Information Age now, computers are a large part of our lives. It seems to me
that programming remains mysterious and difficult to the majority of people despite the fact
that they spend most of their working hours in front of computers.
Once you have mastered programming, there are many things you can do, such as:

Instantly rename hundreds of file with a script instead of doing it one by one
Generate a nice Excel report from raw data instead of typing it in
Write a document once and use scripts to generate several different formats: HTML
(online) and PDF
Turn on or off certain electronic devices when a certain condition is met
Write a cool iOS or Android App
Develop a web application

The bottom line is that when you know how software works you will definitely use computers
better.
Before we start, just like my coach, I am telling you that programming is not mysterious
and you can master it. I believe this book can guide you to the wonderful programming
world.
Like many skills, you cannot master programming by reading the book only, you need to do
it. Lets begin.

1.1 Ruby on Windows

First, we need install Ruby. Download the Ruby Installer for Windows (the latest version to
date is Ruby 2.1.3) and run it. Tick the Add Ruby executables to your PATH checkbox on
the installation dialog window (accept the defaults for the rest).
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Introduction 2

Open command line

The best way to interact with your programs is from the command line. You might have seen
these scenes in some Hollywood movies: a hacker types some commands in a window, and
something (usually big) happens. The windows that accept user commands (without using a
mouse) are called consoles or command windows. To start a command prompt on Windows
platform, press Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt.

You will see a new window like the below.

Introduction 3

Type ruby -v in this black window, then press Enter key

If you get the output like the above, that means the Ruby is installed successfully, and is ready
to use.

Choose a Ruby Editor

Text Editor is a tool for editing texts (e.g. NotePad). As all the code is in text format, we may
use NotePad to write our code in, however, that would not be effective.
Commercial

Sublime Text. A powerful programmers editor. Cost: $70.

Free

SciTE. A free and lightweight programmers editor. There are several different
packages, the easiest one is probably the windows installer (scite-3.3.9x64.msi around
2.7MB).
http://www.sublimetext.com/
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
Introduction 4

Write your first Ruby program

I suggest creating a dedicated folder to put all your code in, for example, C:\Users\you\rubycode.
Open your editor (I use the free SciTE for illustration), and type in puts "Hello World!".
puts writes the followed text to the screen.

Save the file to C:\Users\you\rubycode\helloworld.rb

Execution

To run our program, open a command prompt and change the directory to the rubycode
folder. Type in the command ruby helloworld.rb.

> cd rubycode
> ruby helloworld.rb
Introduction 5

1.2 Ruby on Mac OS X

No installation is required as Ruby comes with Mac OS X.

Open command line

The application to access the command line in Mac OS X is called Terminal. Open in Finder:
Applications Utilities Terminal.

It looks like this:

Type ruby -v, then press Enter key

The ruby version number might be different on your machine, this wont matter.
Introduction 6

Choose a Ruby Editor

Commercial

TextMate. Its was called the editor of Mac and won the Apple Design Award for
best developer tool in 2006. It is very popular among Ruby programmers. Cost: 39.
Sublime Text. Sublime Text is inspired by TextMate. They are quite similar in many
ways. Cost: $70.

Both TextMate and Sublime Text offer free trials.

Free

TextWrangler.

Write your first Ruby program

I suggest creating a dedicated folder to put all your code in, for example, /Users/YOURUSER-
NAME/rubycode.

Start your editor, I would recommend TextMate, but for now (before you decide to purchase
TextMate) I would use the free alternative TextWrangler. Open TextWrangler and type in
puts "Hello World!". puts writes the followed text to the screen.

Save to the folder rubycode with the name helloworld.rb

After saving, you will notice that text color changed. This is called Syntax Highlighting. The
editor now knows that it is a Ruby program (by the extension .rb) and highlights the code
accordingly. This will make code much easier to read and identify problems.

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Introduction 7

Execution

To run our program. Open a Terminal and change the directory to the rubycode folder. Type
in the command ruby helloworld.rb.

$ cd rubycode
$ ruby helloworld.rb

(cd means change directory; ruby filename means running this ruby file.)
You will see the output:

Hello World!

1.3 Online Ruby Tutorials

While I believe you can learn basic Ruby programming with this book, there are online
tutorials that you may use as supplements. For example, read them on your iPad while
waiting at bus stops. Here are two good (and free) ones.

Ruby in Twenty Minutes

Ruby in Twenty Minutes is the official Ruby tutorial. As its name suggests, it takes only
about 20 minutes to go through.

Codecademys Introduction to Ruby course

Codecademy is a website offers free interactive coding courses. One of them is Introduction
to Ruby. Beside explaining concepts, the course also has simple exercises that you can edit
and submit code.
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/quickstart
http://www.codecademy.com
Introduction 8

Why bother this book if I can learn from online Ruby

tutorials?
Online tutorials teach you the basic Ruby syntax and some programming
concepts. While they are important, these knowledge is only useful if put into
practice. For example, to be a good chess player, knowing chess rules is not
enough. Though Courtney completed the Codecademys ruby course first, she
has experienced difficulties in doing even the basic programming exercises.
Programming, in my opinion, is a problem solving skill to solve problems in a
computer friendly way. This knowledge can only gained by practically coding,
which is what this book for. Online tutorials, especially video tutorials, put
learners in a passive mode. You need a book such as this one to turn passive
knowledge to your own.

1.4 Rhythm for Working on the exercises

Every exercise has 5 sections:

The problem to solve. It usually comes with sample output for easier understanding.
Make sure you understand it well.
Purpose. What you can learn from this exercise.
Analyse. Analyze a problem like a programmer. This is an important step. Quite often
we know how to do it but cannot describe it well. Take number sorting as an example;
you can sort 5 numbers instantly on top of your head. But how about 100 numbers? This
requires you to translate your understanding of sorting step by step into procedures
that a computer can execute.

Now write the code for the exercise. No one can learn programming by reading, you have
to actually do it. You may refer to the hints section to to help you get through.

Hints. I list the hints (in Ruby code format) that may help you to solve the problem
when you get stuck.

If you are struggling to solve an exercise, feel free to check out our solutions (at Appendix II).
The exercises are selected to introduce new programming skills/practices as well as previous
knowledge. So dont worry if you cannot get it right the first time, you will have chances to
apply in later exercises. As long as you are trying, you are learning.
Introduction 9

Solution(s). Solutions (can be found at Appendix II) to the most of exercises are
between 10 to 20 lines of code. I may show Courtneys solution first with her
comments. The runnable solution scripts can be downloaded at the book site.
Review. Think about what you have learnt.

1.5 Suggestions on Windows Layouts

To make it easier for you to write and run your code, I suggest you opening 3 windows as
below:

Code Editor on the left, where you edit the code. (I used free SciTE in the screenshot
below).
A Window explorer with the rubycode folder opened.
A Command Prompt (or Terminal on Mac or Linux) window with current directory is
set to rubycode folder (execute the command cd c:\Users\you\rubycode)

Here are the steps to write and run a new program (new_code.rb).
Introduction 10

1. In Window Explorer window, right click and create a new text file and rename it to
new_code.rb. It is important to change the file extension to .rb. On Windows, the
file extension is hidden in Windows Explorer by default. To change a file extension in
Window Explorer, we need to change this setting (to show file extension). Here are the
steps for Windows 7.
In a Window Explorer window, select Organize Folder and search options

Under View tab, uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types checkbox

Click Apply button

To make it as the default settings (recommended), click Apply to Folders button.
2. Drag the new_code.rb file to the editor.
Introduction 11

3. Type and edit the code in the editor. Save when it is ready to run.
4. In Command Prompt window, type

ruby new_code.rb

then press Enter key to run the program.

A quicker way to rerun the program is pressing the Up Arrow key to get the last
command.
5. If necessary, repeat Step 3 and 4 until you are satisfied with the result.

1.6 Type of errors

Programmers (new or experienced) encounter code errors every day. I dont expect you to
get the exercises right on the first go. We learn from mistakes.

Syntax Error

Ruby checks the syntax of code before running it. If there are syntax errors in code, the error
messages are usually quite helpful for identifying the error.

Typo

It is normal that we make typing mistakes when writing code. For example, in the code below,
instead else at line 23, I typed elwe.

When I ran the program, I got the error message:

ex02-02_print_half_diamond.rb:23:in `block in <main>': undefined local varia\

ble or method `elwe' for main:Object (NameError)
from ex02-02_print_half_diamond.rb:20:in `times'
from ex02-02_print_half_diamond.rb:20:in `<main>'

The error message means elwe is undefined (dont worry if this does not make sense, you
will soon understand). The more helpful part in the error trace is the line number 23 (the first
line number next to your code file) . It helps identify where the error is.
Introduction 12

No matching parenthesis or brackets

Just like Math, if there is a left bracket ( in code, there shall be a matching right bracket ).
There are also matching keywords for certain code structures, such as if end. For example,
there are two errors in the code below.

1. at line 24: missing ), shall be (15 - row).

2. at line 25: missing end for if at line 21.

When you run the program, the error message expecting ) is correct.

ex02-02_print_half_diamond.rb:27: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expe\

cting ')'

However, the line number 27 is not where the actual error is. That is because it is not possible
for Ruby to detect all error scenarios. If the right bracket is on the next line, the program is
valid. Only after line 27, Ruby detects the right bracket is actually missing.
After fixing the first error and rerunning the program, a second error occurs. Again, the error
line number is not exactly where the real error is.

ex02-02_print_half_diamond.rb:27: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting k\

eyword_end

Adding end to line 25 will fix the code.

Runtime error

A runtime error is a software problem that prevents a program from working correctly.
When a runtime error occurs, the execution of the program terminates with error messages
displayed.
Introduction 13

int a = 5
puts("OK so far")
b = 200 / (a - 5)

The above code runs with an error thrown at line 3, here is the output.

OK so far
runtime_error.rb:3:in `/': divided by 0 (ZeroDivisionError)
divided by 0 (ZeroDivisionError)

Code logic error

The above two kinds of errors are relatively easy to spot. The difficult errors for programmers
are code logic errors. That is, the code can run without syntax errors, but does not behave as
it is supposed to. Here is an example.

# score below 60 fails the subject

score = read_user_score()
if score > 60
puts "Pass"
else
puts "Fail"
end

The above code reads a users exam score and gives the grade: Pass or Fail. It runs fine,
most of time, except when the score is 60. There is a code logic error on line 3, it shall be if
score >= 60.

The ability to debug code errors (find and fix them) separates good programmers from the
average. With practice, you will get better on this.
For beginners, I have two practical tips.

1. One step at a time. Write one line of code, run the code immediately. This may sound
uninteresting, but in practice, many find it is the most useful tip to learn programming.
If newly added or changed code fragment caused the error, a click of Undo button (in
your editor) will get back your code to previous working state.
Introduction 14

2. If feeling confused, restart. If you stuck with existing code, chances are the complex-
ity of the code is beyond your control. Try guessing around to get computers to work
as instructed (by your code) is highly unlikely. In this case, it is better to restart from
scratch. For most of exercises in this book, solutions are less than 20 lines of code.

1.7 Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB )

IRB is a tool that allows the execution of Ruby commands with immediate response, which
can be very helpful for learning Ruby syntaxes and debugging code errors. IRB comes with
Ruby and it is launched from a command line. To run IRB, just run irb from a command line
window then try ruby code there.

In the screenshot above, the commands in the green boxes are what I entered. The rest were
the responses returned from the commands.
In Appendix 1 (Ruby in Nutshell) I summarized the core Ruby syntax and usage in examples
which you can conveniently run in IRB.
2. Printing Shapes
Printing out asterisk characters (*) in shapes is often used as beginners programming
exercises, as they are simple, easy to understand and visually interesting.

2.1 Print out Triangle

Write a program to print out asterisks like the triangle shape below:

*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*********
**********

Purpose

Develop ability to analyse patterns

Variables
Use of looping

Analyse

15
Printing Shapes 16

Row The number of stars

1 1
2 2
3 3

n n

Hints

Print out text.

puts '*'
puts "**"

For small ruby code fragments, you can try them out quickly in IRB.

Generate multiple occurrences of the same character.

'$' * 3 # => '$$$'

Because Maths times operator is easy to get confused with the letter x in code , * is
commonly used as the multiplication operator in most programming languages.

Code Comment
Comments are annotations used in code for human to read, computers will ignore
them. In Ruby, statements after # are comments.

# comment: the code below prints out 10 $ signs.

puts '$' * 10

Besides writing down your notes in code as comments, you may also comment
out some code fragments when you are not sure to remove them yet.

Using a variable to store an integer.

Printing Shapes 17

star_count = 2
puts '*' * star_count # => '**'

star_count = star_count + 1 # now star_count => 3

puts '*' * star_count # => '***'

Variables
You can think of a variable is a labeled box in computers to store data, its
data can be changed. The naming convention for Ruby variables is in lower case
separated b underscores, for example, my_birth_date.

Print out the same text multiple times in a loop (fixed number of times)

5.times do
puts '*'
end

The do end mark the beginning and end of loop respectively,

Working out the solution on your computer

Make sure you understand the Analyse and Hints parts before you start.
Printing Shapes 18

Courtneys version

count = 0
10.times do
count = count + 1
stars = "*" * count
puts stars
end
Printing Shapes 19

2.2 Print out a half diamond

Write a program that prints out half of the diamond shape using asterisks.

*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*******
******
*****
****
***
**
*

Purpose

Decrement count in loops

Analyse

The key to this problem is to determine the number of stars for the corresponding rows.

row 1 to 8: the same as row number

row 9 to 15: 16 - row

Hints

Control flows using if else

Code, in its simplest form, is executed from top to bottom. But if there are if conditions and
loops (and later methods and classes), it will change the flow of execution. The conditional
expressions (if-then-else statements) run different code statements depending on a boolean
condition (true or false).
Printing Shapes 20

score = 75
if score < 60
puts("Failed!")
else
puts("Pass!")
end

Output:

Pass!

If you change the score = 59 and run again, you will get Failed!.
Boolean condition
The statement score < 60 after if is called a boolean condition. Its value can only be either
true or false (which are called boolean values).

Common comparison operators in Ruby

== equal to
!= not equal to
< less than
<= less than or equal to
> greater than
>= greater than or equal to

Examples:

2 > 1 # => true

2 == 1 # => false (equal to)
2 != 1 # => true (not equal to)
2 <= 2 # true
Printing Shapes 21

Equal sign = and Double equal sign ==

The equal sign (=) is the assignment operator, it assigns a value to a variable on
the left.

a = 1 + 2 # assign 3 to a

Please note the assignment operator is different from the equality symbol in
Math. For example, the statement below increases the value of a by 1 (assign a
new value to a) in programming code. The same equation in Math is invalid.

a = a + 1 # increment a by 1

The double equal signs (==) is a comparison operator, it compares two values for
equality (returns true if a is equal to b, false otherwise).

if a == b
puts "Found a match!"
end

Incorrect use of = for == is one of the most common mistakes in programming.

http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/common.html
Printing Shapes 22

Courtneys version

count = 0
8.times do
count += 1 # this is equivalent to count = count + 1
stars = "*" * count
puts stars
end
count = 10
8.times do
count -= 1
stars = "*" * count
puts stars
end

Courtneys version loops 16 times (8 + 8), but prints out OK (15 lines). This is because when
count is decrement to 0, an empty line is printed out instead.

Courtney uses two loops, which is fine and quite logical for beginners.
Printing Shapes 23

2.3 Print out diamond shape

Print 7 rows of * in a diamond shape as below:

*
***
*****
*******
*****
***
*

Purpose

Analyse more complex patterns

Analyse

Below are formulas to calculate the number of star; where row_number represents the row
number and total_rows represents the total number of rows,

1. The number of stars for the rows before the middle one is (row_number - 1) * 2 +
1.
2. the number of stars for the rows after the middle one is (total_rows - row_number)
* 2 + 1

Think about the spaces in front of each row, except for the 4th row (the longest middle one).

Hints

Write down the number of spaces and stars for each row.
Printing Shapes 24

row 1: print 3 spaces + 1 star

row 2: print 2 spaces + 3 stars
row 3: print 1 space + 5 stars
row 4: print 0 space + 7 stars
row 5: print 1 space + 5 stars
row 6: print 2 spaces + 3 stars
row 7: print 3 spaces + 1 star

If you have difficulty, do it step by step. You may try to print out the top triangle
first.
Printing Shapes 25

Courtneys version

space = " "

space_count = 4
7.times do |row|

if row < 4
space_count -= 1
star_count = row * 2 + 1
print space * space_count
else
space_count += 1
star_count = (7 - 1 - row) * 2 + 1
print space * space_count
end
puts '*' * star_count
end

Courtney says:
I was stuck on the number of stars and number of spaces. I had to sit down
with dad to work out the math formula. Also, the multiple variables makes it
confusing. So remember to name variables properly and meaningfully. If you are
stuck, you can print the variable you think may be the problem. This can help
you understand what is going on and how to fix it.

Courtney uses variable space to represent a space string, which is a good practice.
Printing Shapes 26

2.4 Print big diamond, name your size

Ask the user for the size of diamond (based on the total number of rows) and then print out
a diamond shape using asterisks *.

Enter the maximum number of rows (odd number): 9

*
***
*****
*******
*********
*******
*****
***
*

Purpose

Read users input into a variable

Convert string to integer
Use variable use loop times

Analyse

The size of the diamond is not fixed, it depends on the number the user entered. The number
the program asks the user to enter is the total number of rows, which can be stored in an
variable.
If you divide the diamond into two parts (top and bottom), work out the number of rows for
each part.

Hints

Read users input

user_input = gets # read user input to a string stored in user_input

Printing Shapes 27

The above gets accepts a line of text from keyboard and assigns the string typed and a \n
character to variable user_input. \n is a new line character, which is added when the user
press Enter key. Quite often, we want to remove this \n immediately. Here is code to do
that:

user_input = gets.chomp

String and Fixnum

The String and Fixnum (number) are two most common data types in Ruby.

a = "12"
b = "3"
a + b # => "123"

c = 12
d = 3
c + d # => 15

Adding a String to an Fixnum will get an error.

a.class # => String

c.class # => Fixnum
a + c # return errors TypeError: no implicit conversion of Fixnum into St\
ring

Convert a number string to integer

"6".to_i # => to integer 6

"12".to_i + 3 # => 15

Math divide operator in Ruby: /

Printing Shapes 28

8 / 2 # => 4
9 / 2 # => 4, ignore the remainder
(1 + 2) * 3 + 3 / 2 # => 10
Printing Shapes 29

Courtneys version

puts "Enter the maximum number of rows (odd number):"

size = gets.chomp.to_i
space = " "
space_count = size / 2 + 1

size.times do |row|
if row < (size / 2 + 1)
space_count -= 1
star_count = row * 2 + 1
print space * space_count
else
space_count += 1
star_count = (size - 1 - row) * 2 + 1
print space * space_count
end
puts '*' * star_count
end

Courtney says:
When I first tried replacing diamond size with user input variable, I forgot to
change the variables and that made the outcome completely different. It is not
hard to fix it though.

You must know it first, then instruct computers

Trying to enter a big number for the last program, say 99. It will print a big
diamond, Wow!
This an important aspect of programming. Once you figure out the pattern
and logic of a problem and translate it into computer understandable language
(program), it can solve the similar problems at any scale. For example, the effort
taken for computers to calculate 2 x 2 is not much different from 12343 x 35345.
In other words, we (human) must understand how to solve the problem first.
Programming translates the how into instructions that computers can follow.
Printing Shapes 30

2.5 Exercises
Write code to print out the shapes below, the width of shape is changeable.

Rhombus

*****
*****
*****
*****
*****

Hollow Square

*****
* *
* *
* *
*****

Heart

***** *****
******* *******
********* *********
*******************
*****************
***************
*************
***********
*********
*******
*****
***
*

Hints

The first three rows are static regardless of the size.

3. Quiz Time
We will do some computer interaction exercises.

3.1 Simple Add Calculator

Write a simple calculator that adds two integers (up to 99) from user inputs and
prints out the sum.

I am an adding machine, and I am good at it.

Enter first number: (type 1, press Enter)
Enter second number: (type 99, press Enter)
Thinking ...
Got it, the answer is: 100

Purpose

Read users keyboard input

Use variables for mathematic operations
Print variable in a string

Analyse

An adding operation requires two inputs which we need to collect from the user. The user-
inputted number must be stored (in variables) before we can add them up and output the
sum.

Hints

Read users keyboard input

31
Quiz Time 32

gets.chomp # read user input, end with Enter key

"123".to_i # convert string to integer

Print variables in string

name = "Courtney"
age = 13
puts "My name is " + name # OK
puts "My age is " + age # Error!
puts "My age is " + age.to_s # OK

The second statement will throw an error TypeError: no implicit conversion of Fixnum
into String. This is because Ruby detects a string plus an integer (age).

One way to overcome this problem is to embed the variables within a double quoted string
using #{variable}.

name = "Courtney"
age = 13
puts("Hello, My name is #{name}, I am #{age} years old.")

Output:

Hello, My name is Courtney, I am 13 years old.

Quiz Time 33

3.2 Addition Quiz

Write a program to prompt 10 single digit addition questions, provide feedback

based on users response and then print out the score.

1 + 1 = (enter 2)
Correct.
2 + 7 = (enter 8)
Wrong!
...
6 + 3 =

Your score: 8/10

Purpose

Use rand() to generate a random number

Looping
Incrementing a variable (counting)

Analyse

10 questions means repeating the following operations 10 times

1. generate one number

2. generate another number
3. ask user for the answer
4. check the answer and print out feedback

To get a score, you will need to prepare a counter. If the users input is correct, increment the
counter by 1.
Quiz Time 34

Hints

Generate a random number

A random number is a computer generated number in a nondeterministic manner. Random
numbers are quite useful for a variety of purposes, such as simulation in games, encryption,
quiz (like this exercise), etc. To generate a random number within a range:

rand(10) # a random number between 0 to 9

The generated random number will be different for each run.

Counting
Incrementing the variable by 1.

count = 0 # clear it first

5.times do
count = count + 1
end
puts count # => 5

Stop program
Press Ctrl+C to terminate the programs execution.
Quiz Time 35

3.3 Subtraction Quiz

Write a program to prompt 10 single digit subtraction questions, provide feedback

based on users response and then print out the score.

9 - 1 = (enter 8)
Correct.
7 - 2 = (enter 8)
Wrong!
...
Your score: 8/10

Purpose

Use logic control (if)

Be consistent with changes: changing a part code here might affect there.

Analyse

It might seem like the previous exercise, however, this one can be a little tricky.

Hints

Subtraction in this context is using a bigger number to minus a smaller number. The random
number generator does not guarantee the first number is bigger.
Quiz Time 36

Courtneys version

count = 0
10.times do
num1 = rand(10)
num2 = rand(10)
if num1 > num2
print "#{num1} - #{num2} = "
answer = num1 - num2
else
print "#{num2} - #{num1} = "
answer = num2 - num1
end
input = gets.chomp.to_i
if answer == input
puts "Correct!"
count += 1
else
puts "Wrong!"
end
end
puts "Your score is #{count}/10"

Courtney says:
I didnt get it right first time as I forgot to change the answer. If you want to
change one thing you may have to change others because they affect each other.

Her initial (incorrect) version was:

if num1 > num2

print "#{num1} - #{num2} = "
else
print "#{num2} - #{num1} = "
end
answer = num1 - num2
Quiz Time 37

This caused some confusion, where the answer was not matching the question. Because the
two numbers are randomly generated and the answer is only correct when the first number is
bigger, otherwise the answer will be a negative number. This kind of errors in programming
are called intermittent errors, which are hard to discover.
Also, the count increment statement works but is not in a good format.

count = count += 1 # bad way

count += 1 # OK
count = count + 1 # OK too
Quiz Time 38

3.4 Number Guessing Game

The computer has a secret number (0 to 9), the program prompts the user to enter
a guess and give feedback such as too big or too small. The program ends when
a correct answer is entered.

I have a secret number (0 - 9), Can you guess it?

=> (you type 9)
Too big!
=> (you type 4)
Too Small!
=> (you type 5)
Correct! You guessed 3 times.

Purpose

Infinity looping
Exit program or looping

Analyse

Different from the previous exercises, the number of times the computer prompts is
nondeterministic. The program ends when the player answered correctly.

Hints

Infinity loop
An infinity loop is a sequence of code loops endlessly.

while true
# ...
end
Quiz Time 39

The Apple Campus is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., located at 1

Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California, United States.

(source Wikipedia)

Exit from a loop

Obviously we need an exit mechanism to make infinity loop useful.

# ...
break # ends the current loop
# ...

or quit the program completely.

exit

For example,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Loop_%28street%29
Quiz Time 40

while true {
# ... calculate result
if result > 60 {
puts("You passed")
break
}
}
puts "made here"
Quiz Time 41

Courtneys version

puts "I have a secret number (0-9) Can you guess it?"
count = 0
input = nil # nil means no value
answer = rand(10)
until input == answer
input = gets.chomp.to_i
count += 1
if input > answer
puts "TOO BIG"
elsif input < answer
puts "too small"
else
puts "CORRECT"
end
end
puts " The number is : #{answer}. and you guessed #{count} times!!"

Courtney says:
I had trouble with this one. I had two inputs which made one of them work and
the other not. I had also confused the loop with the if and that changed the whole
thing.

Courtney actually got stuck, probably due to doing it in a rush (so she could play her video
game). After I asked her to restart from scratch, she got it right.
Here is what she meant two inputs:

input = gets.chomp.to_i
until input == answer
input = gets.chomp.to_i
# ...
end

The first input = gets.chomp.to_i is what she used to have at the beginning of program (a
habit). Then she realized that the program needs to ask for the users input again, therefore she
Quiz Time 42

added the second input = gets.chomp.to_i in the loop. The program reads an unnecessary
user input, which confused her. Removing the first line input = gets.chomp.to_i got the
following error:

undefined local variable or method `input'

Not wanting to change her code, I hinted that the input variable can be set to nil at the
beginning.

input = nil # nil means no value

# ...

Courtney used until instead the infinity looping while (suggested in the hint), which is fine.
Quiz Time 43

3.5 Exercises

Hangman

Write a program to guess a word by trying to guess the individual characters. The word to
be guessed shall be provided using the command-line argument.
Your program shall look like:

My secret word: ________

Key in one character or the guess word: a

Try 1: _____a__
Key in one character or the guess word: t
Try 2: ___t_a__
Key in one character or guess word: o
Try 3: _oot_a__
Key in one character or the guess word: football
Try 4: Correct!
You got it in 4 tries.

Hints

If you are not familiar with Array, come to to do this exercise after the next chapter.
4. Array and Hash
In previous exercises, we used simple data types such as Strings and Integers (called Fixnum in
ruby). There are composite data types that are a collection of other types. The most common
composite data types are Array and Hash. An array is like a list and a hash is like a dictionary-
like lookup.
In this chapter, we will write some programs using Array and Hash. The Ruby official
documentation has good explanation on them and all their methods are listed, even with
easy to understand examples.

Ruby Array Doc

Ruby Hash Doc

4.1 Sort Children Names

Ask a list of names and then output them in alphabetical order. The program
ends when the user enters 0.

Enter child names in class: (0 to finish):

Dominic
Courtney
Anna
Angela
Ella
Toby
Emma
0

Kids in order:
Angela, Anna, Courtney, Dominic, Ella, Emma, Toby
http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.0/Array.html
http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.0/Hash.html

44
Array and Hash 45

Purpose

Adding data into an array

Array sorting
End a loop on a condition
Display array

Analyse

There are two steps: collecting names and sorting them.

Hints

Add an element to an array.

au_states = [] # initialize an empty array

au_states = ["NSW", "VIC"] # initialize an array with data
au_states << "QLD" # au_states now ["NSW", "VIC", "QLD"]

Sorting an array.

# will sort array in ascending order

array.sort # => ["Apple", "Google", "Samsung", "Sony"]
array.join(", ") # => "Google, Apple, Samsung, Sony"
Array and Hash 46

4.2 Get the character from given alphabetical position

Asks the user to enter a number between 1 to 26, and then print the character at
the alphabetical position. The program ends when the user enters 0.

I know the alphabet very well, enter the alphabetical order number (integer)\
and I will tell you the corresponding letter, 0 to quit:
1 (user enter)
is 'A'
5 (user enter)
is 'E'
0
Bye!

Purpose

Access array element by index

Infinite loop with exit condition

Analyse

The number of times the user can input is undetermined. So it will be an infinite loop with
an exit condition: when 0 is entered.
We can use the alphabet position to look up in a predefined array for the corresponding
character.

Hints

Like many programming languages, array indexing starts with 0, not 1.

Array and Hash 47

array = ["Google", "Apple", "Sony", "Samsung"] # define an array

# accessing elements in this array
array[0] # => "Google"
array[2] # => "Sony"
array[-1] # => "Samsung"
Array and Hash 48

4.3 Calculate Average

Ask the user to enter a set of student scores (non-negative) integers and then
calculate the average. The program ends when the user enters -1.

Enter scores: (enter -1 to finish):

87
94
100
56
74
67
75
88
-1

Average score : 80

Analyse

Calculation of the average is easy (see the hints below) by using existing Rubys array
functions.

Purpose

Add data element into an array

Sum an array

Hints

Try to do the sum first and then calculate the average. There are two ways to sum all elements
in array:
Array and Hash 49

# adding all elements in an array: classic way

array = [1, 2, 3]
the_sum = 0
array.each do |num|
the_sum += num
end

The standard and more concise way to sum an array of numbers.

the_sum = array.inject{|sum,x| sum + x }

Array and Hash 50

Courtneys version

array = []
count = 0
puts "Enter scores: "
while true
input = gets.chomp.to_i
if input == -1
break
else
array << input
count += 1
end
end
sum = 0
array.each do |number|
sum += number
end
average = sum / count

puts "Average score: #{average}"

Array and Hash 51

4.4 What makes 100% in life?

If we represent the alphabet numerically by identifying sequence of letters

(A,B,C,,X,Y,Z) with the percentages (1%,2%,3%,,24%,25%,26%). A sum of
each characters value in a word is the meaning to life percentage. Then
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K = (8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11)% = 98%
Ask user to enter an English word (or string) and calculate its meaning to life percentage.

Enter your word (in capital): HARDWORK

The value of meaning to life: 98%

Try the words: KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, VIDEOGAME

Purpose

Use of Hash for looking up

Treat string as an array

Analyse

Three main steps:

1. Break up a string into a list of characters

2. For each character, find out its percentage value (integer).
3. Add all the percentage values up

Hints

Looping each character in a string.

Array and Hash 52

"ABC".split("").each do |ch|
# process ch as a character
end

Get the value from a hash by a given key.

# define a Hash
cities_abbrevs = { "LA" => "Los Angeles", "NY" => "New York" }

# look up in a Hash
cities_abbrevs["NY"] # => "New York"
cities_abbrevs["SF"] # => nil, no entry matching the key "SF"

Here is another Hash example: data type of keys and values are different (string integer).

numbers = { "one" => 1, "two" => 2 }

numbers["one"] + numbers["two"] # => 3
Array and Hash 53

Courtneys version

array = []
hash = { "A" => 1,"B" => 2,"C" => 3, "D" => 4, "E" => 5, "F" => 6, "G" => 7\
, "H" => 8, "I" => 9, "J" => 10, "K" => 11, "L" => 12, "M" => 13, "N" => 14,\
"O" => 15, "P" => 16, "Q" => 17, "R" => 18, "S" => 19, "T" => 20, "U" => 21\
, "V" => 22, "W" => 23, "X" => 24,"Y" => 25, "Z" => 26}
puts "Enter word in capitals"
input = gets.chomp

input.split("").each do |character|
array << hash[character]
end

the_sum = array.inject{|sum,x| sum + x}

puts "The value of meaning to life: #{the_sum}%"

Courtney says:
I found this one very difficult. After the users input is added, the loops make it
harder and I didnt realize that I needed to use the array until later. I also found
the hashes difficult and hard to use. Hashes are used to look up a key to find the
value (key value). Sometimes it helps to write what you are going to do on
paper then work it out using ruby.

Courtney got stuck here. After some hints and explanation, especially showing how to do it
manually on paper, she managed to get it done; but it took quite long time (45 minutes).
Array and Hash 54

4.5 Exercises

Find the Median

The Median is the middle of a sorted list of numbers. For example, the median of the data
set 1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9 is 5. If there is an even number of data values the median is the mean of
the two data values in the middle. For example, the median of the data set 4, 2, 1, 3, 5, 4 is 3.
It is the mean of 3 and 4 or, (3 + 4) /2 = 3.5.
Write a program to find the median of a list of numbers. The output shall be like this:

Enter a list of numbers (separated by space): 4 2 1 3 5 4

The Median is: 3.5

Hints

Split a string of list numbers to an integer array

"12 15 7 8 25".split.collect{|x| x.to_i } # => [12, 15, 7, 8, 25]

5. Useful Utility Programs
In this chapter, we will write some utility program that might be useful to you.

5.1 Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter

Julie, an Australian, is going to USA, where different Fahrenheit temperature

scales are used. Here is the Fahrenheit to Celsius formula:

Can you write a program for Julie to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius? The result is rounded to
2 digits after the decimal point.

Enter temperature in Fahrenheit: 100.5

In Celsius: 38.06

Purpose

Apply math formula into programming

Float number
Rounding

Analyse

This is just simple calculation based on a given formula. So far our calculations are using
integers only. This one has floating numbers, which are decimal numbers.

Hints

Convert a string to a float number.

55
Useful Utility Programs 56

"34.123".to_f

In Ruby, the result of dividing two integers is also an integer.

100 / 3 # => 33

To get more precise result.

100.0 / 3 # => 33.3333333

# when variables used

a = 100
a * 1.0 /3

Rounding.

37.455.round(2) # => 37.46

Courtney says:
I initially used the inputs= gets.chomp.to_i at first, the output was 37.0 instead
of 37.46. I tried printing out the input after entering 100.5 (for debugging), the
number returned was 100! Changing to_i to to_f corrected it.
Useful Utility Programs 57

5.2 Personal Income Tax Calculator

Here are Australian personal income tax rates for 2013-14 financial year.

Taxable income Tax on this income

0 $18,200 Nil
$18,201 $37,000 19c for each $1 over $18,200
$37,001 $80,000 $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 $180,000 $17,547 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 and over $54,547 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000

Write a program to calculate how much tax an Australian needs to pay based on his or her
annual salary.

Enter your annual income: 80000

Your personal income tax amount: $17547

Analyse

The calculation is easy. The key here is to compare the user entered amount against thresholds
(note, I used plurals here).

Purpose

Branching using if, elsif and else

Logical operators && (and)
case and when

Complete this exercise using if, else if and else first, then change to switch
statement. Review the difference.
Useful Utility Programs 58

Hints

IF-ELSE IF
The branching concept is simple and self-explanatory.

a = 10
if a < 10
puts "single digit"
elsif a >= 100
puts "too big, I don't know"
else
puts "two digits"
end

The statements after if and elsif are conditions. Their value can only be either true or
false (which are called boolean values).

Logical operators

&& AND
|| OR

Example:

a = 10
if a > 0 && a < 10
puts "#{a} is a positive single digit number"
end

CASE-WHEN
When dealing with a large number of possible conditions, case statement is better than if-
else in terms of code clarity.
Useful Utility Programs 59

score = 70

result = case score

when 0..60
"Fail"
when 61..70
"Pass"
when 71..95
"Pass with Distinction"
when 96, 97, 98, 99
"Distinction"
when 100
"High Distinction"
else
"Invalid Score"
end
puts result # => Pass
Useful Utility Programs 60

5.3 Word count

Emily wrote a book review, but she is not sure whether it meets the required
word count. Assuming Emilys article is already saved in a string, can you write
a program to count the number of words?
(assuming the text is Practical Web Test Automation book is great. The end. and set in the
code)

The text has 9 words.

Purpose

Tokenization, split strings by separators into an array

Count array size

Analyse

Words are separated by spaces (we will use this rule for the exercise). Counting how many
spaces is not a good idea, as two consecutive spaces shall be counted as one in this case.
One way is to use tokenization, splitting the text into tokens by whitespace characters.

Hints

Use split method to split a string into an array with a given separator.

pixar_movies = "Toy Story,A Bug's Life,Incredibles,Toy Story 2,Finding Nemo,\

Ratatouille,Cars"
pixar_movie_list = pixar_movies.split(",")
pixar_movie_list.size # => 7
pixar_movie_list[0] # => "Toy Story"

If no separator is given, a string is split on white spaces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenization
Useful Utility Programs 61

good_movies = "Toy Story 2,Finding Nemo"

good_movies.split # => ["Toy", "Story", "2,Finding", "Nemo"]

Courtney says:
I found this one rather easy, except I did not name my variables properly and had
to rename them.
Useful Utility Programs 62

5.4 Generate Lotto Numbers

Write a program to generate 6 Lotto numbers. Lotto numbers are between 1 and
49.

Your winning lotto numbers are [23, 34, 12, 6, 7, 49], good luck!

Purpose

Check whether an array contains an element

Use of random number generator

Analyse

Obviously, we need the lotto numbers to be randomly generated, and they have to be unique.
We can use rand(). However, the random number generator may generate duplicate ones.
Here is one way. Lets say, you are the picker for the lotto and have a number of buckets.
Each bucket contains 49 individually numbered balls (from 1 to 49).

1. You go to the first bucket, close your eyes, pick up one ball and put on the table.
2. Go to the second bucket, close eyes, pick up another ball.
3. Before you putting it on the table, open your eyes, if this number was already on the
table, you put the ball back to the second bucket.
4. Repeat the step 2 again until find the number is not already on the table.
5. Repeat 4 more times, then you get all 6 unique lotto numbers.

Hints

Check whether an array contains one element, i.e. check the uniqueness.
Useful Utility Programs 63

array = ["Apple", "Sony"]

array.include?("Apple") # => true
array.include?("Samsung") # => false
Useful Utility Programs 64

5.5 Number sorting

Ask the user to input 10 numbers, then sort them in order.

Please enter 10 numbers:

10
8
7
3
4
5
9
1
2
6

The numbers in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Note: built-in sorting functions are not allowed.

Analyse

Imagine you have 5 coins with different values: 10c , 20c, 50c, $1, and $2. How do you sort
the coins (from small to big)? I know it is obvious to human. But by now, you probably know
that we need to translate our solution into steps that computers can understand.
Lets get back to our coin sorting problem. There are 5 coins on the table. You pick up the first
coin (from left to right) in your left hand, then compare it to the rest one by one (by picking
it up in your right hand). If the one in your left hand is smaller, put back the the coin in your
right hand and continue. If the one in your left hand is bigger, swap with the one in your
right hand. Basically, after each comparison, make sure the one in your left hand is smaller.
After one iteration, the one in your left hand is the smallest. Put this one aside on a cloth,
now there shall be 4 coins left on the table. Then starting another iteration, when done, put
the coin (in left hand) on the right side of the last coin on the cloth. Repeat until only one
coin left. The coins on the cloth are sorted (from small to large).
Here is the pseudocode for the above:
Useful Utility Programs 65

for each element in the list

identify current_one
for the next one (index) to the last one (index) do
if any one in remaining is bigger than current_one
swap them
end if
end for (inside)
end for (outside)

Purpose

Iterating an array
Swapping variables
Access elements in an array using index
Looping an array from specific index range

Hints

Swapping variables
To swap two variables, it is traditionally (in most programming languages) done via a third
variable:

c = a
a = b
b = c

This is a common pattern and to help me remember, I used the phrase ca-ab-bc.
In Ruby, it can be done much neater:

a, b = b, a

Iterating an array, get the array element by index

Useful Utility Programs 66

array.each_with_index do |num, idx|

# array[idx] to access the current element
end

array[0] # first one

array[array.size() - 1] # last one
array[-1] # also last one

To loop an array from a specific index range

array = ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G"]

(2..(5-1)).each do |an_idx|
puts array[an_idx]
end
# will print out "C", "D", "E" (the index from 2 to 4)
Useful Utility Programs 67

5.6 Exercises

Convert Decimal to Hex

Write a program to convert an input decimal string into its equivalent hexadecimal. Your
output shall look like:

Decimal number: 398

The equivalent hexadecimal number: 18E

Hints

Decimal to Hex

428 / 16 # => 26, remain: 12

26 / 16 # => 1, remain: 10
1 / 16 # => 0, remain: 1

Convert the remains of the above based on all hex numbers ['0', '1', '2', '3', '4',
'5', '6', '7,' '8', '9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F'], in reversing order.

1 => 1
10 => A
12 => C

The hexadecimal for decimal number 428 is 1AC.

Convert Hex to Decimal

Write a program to convert an input hexadecimal string into its equivalent decimal number.
Your output shall look like:

Hexadecimal : 1a
The equivalent decimal number for hexadecimal "1a" is 26

Hints

Power operator (Math)

Useful Utility Programs 68

2 ** 3 # => 8
5 ** 3 # => 125

Hex to Decimal

# A5BE is a hex number

A5BE = 10 * (16 ** 3) + 5 * (16 ** 2) + 11 * (16 ** 1) + 14 * (16 ** 0)
= 42430

Word to Phone Number Converter

On phone keypad, the alphabets are mapped to digits as follows:

ABC(2) DEF(3)
GHI(4) JKL(5) MNO(6)
PQRS(7) TUV(8) WXYZ(9)

Write a program thats prompts user for a String (case insensitive), and converts to a sequence
of Keypad digits.

Enter your PhoneWords: 1800 TESTWISE

The actual phone number: 1800 83789473
6. Fun Math
Computers were created originally to do mathematic computation, hence it is named
computer. Math is an essential part of software design. I know for many, fun is not the
word to describe Math. Programming, in my opinion, can add a fun factor to Math.
There are two-way benefits: programming allows you to understand Math better and you
can utilize your Math skills to solve problems.

6.1 Finding Divisors

Write a program to list all divisors of a given number (user entered).

Enter a number: (108)

The divisors of 108: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 27, 36, 54, 108

Analyse

To determine whether a number is divisible by another, check the remainder of the division.
0 means divisible.

Purpose

Determine a number is fully divisible.

Hints

Rubys modulo operator: % returns the remainder of a division.

69
Fun Math 70

8 % 3 # => 2
9 % 3 # => 0
Fun Math 71

6.2 Finding the Highest Common Factor

Write a program to ask the user to enter two non-negative integers and then find
the highest common factor (HCF).

Enter the first number: (8)

Enter the second number: (12)
The HCF of 8 and 12 is: 4

Highest Common Factor

The largest common factor of two or more numbers is called the highest common
factor. The HCF is also known as greatest common devisor (gcd). For example,

8 = 1 x 8 = 2 x 4
12 = 1 x 12 = 2 x 6 = 3 x 4

So the common factors of 8 and 12 are: 1, 2 and 4 (1, 2, 4 and 8 for 8; 1, 2, 3, 4, 6

and 12 for 12). 4 is the highest common factor.

Purpose

Iterate an array
Check whether an element is in an array?
Use break to terminate a loop

Analyse

There are several methods to compute the HCF. I am going to focus on a simple way. As a
matter of fact, this method has the most steps but it is the easiest one to understand.

1. Compute all divisors of the first number and note them down, e.g. 8 => [1, 2, 4,
8]
Fun Math 72

2. Compute all divisors of the second number and note them down, e.g, 12 => [1, 2,
3, 4, 6, 12]
3. Find the largest one in both divisors list: Starting with one, work you way down, and
check whether the divisor is also in the second. The first divisor found in both divisors
list is HCF (check divisor from large to small).

Knowing the answer to working out the algorithm

For the above example, Step 3 is quite obvious to human. If I ask you why, many
might not be able to answer. Some might say: It is obvious when seeing two
divisor list. However, if the two numbers are 103096 and 234986, it is a different
story, isnt it?
Computers are not afraid of big numbers like us, they just need an algorithm
in a set of steps to execute. If you know the answer, it means you know the
algorithm, but may not be good at expressing it out. This takes time and practice.
In my view, mastering this makes you a programmer. The best way is to start
with simple examples. Imagine yourself as a computer, then work out steps on a
paper.

Hints

Store divisors of each number into two separate arrays.

divisors_list_1 = [1, 2, 4, 8]
divisors_list_2 = [1, 2, 4, 8, 12]

Sort an array from large to small order.

divisors_list_1.sort.reverse # => [8,4,2,1]

Iterate (i.e, go through one by one) one array (divisors_list_1). For each element in this
array (divisors_list_1), check whether the other array (divisors_list_2) contains the
divisor. The first divisor found in both arrays is HCF.
Fun Math 73

array = [1, 2, 3, 6]
array.each do |elem|
# process the elem.
end

array = [1, 2, 3, 6]
array.include?(2) # => true
array.include?(7) # => false
Fun Math 74

Courtneys version

Courtney says:
I found this one very hard as I didnt quite understand how to achieve my goal. At
first I made my code very confusing and ended up having it deleted and started
from scratch. This happened twice. On the first attempt, I was unsure how to
get to the HCF and on the second attempt I didnt do the main part of the code.
Instead, the outer part (like puts) made it hard to continue. To make a ruby code
you must first understand the objective: work on the main part, then do the other
bits.

divisors_list_1 = []
divisors_list_2 = []
puts "Enter first number: "
num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
(1..num1).each do |x|
check = num1 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_1 << x
end
end
puts "Enter second number: "
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
(1..num2).each do |x|
check = num2 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_2 << x
end
end

d1sorted = divisors_list_1.sort.reverse
d1sorted.each do |elem|
# puts "elem = #{elem}"
if divisors_list_2.include?(elem)
puts "The HCF is #{elem}"
break
Fun Math 75

end
end
Fun Math 76

6.3 Finding the Least Common Multiple (LCM)

Least (also sometimes called Lowest) common multiple is the smallest (non-zero)
number that is a multiple of two or more examples. For example, 12 is the LCM
of 6 and 4, as 12 = 6 x 2 and 12 = 3 x 4. 24 is also a common multiple of 4 and 6,
but is not the lowest.

Enter the first number: (6)

Enter the second number: (4)
The LCM for 6 and 12 is: 12
Calculation time: 0.0001 seconds

Now, try bigger numbers such as 4254 and 82835.

The LCM for 4254 and 82835 is: 352380090

Calculation time: 25.564194 seconds

Lets see how you can improve the calculation speed.

Purpose

Use step for looping

Timing code execution
Optimize program performance

Analyse

A simple way is to search the number from the larger one of the two to the multiple of the
two. For example,

(6..6*4).each do |n|
# check whether n is LCM?
end

The above brute-force way is not optimal. Obviously, it will take longer due to too many
looping (a * b) when the two numbers are big.
One of the most effective way to speed up your program is to reduce the number of loops.
For this example, it is not necessary to check each number from 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, , 24.
We just need to check every multiple of 6, i.e, 6, 12, 18, 24.
Fun Math 77

Hints

Loop with steps

(6..24).step(6) do |n|
puts n
end
# will print out 6, 12, 18, 24

Time the code execution time

start_time = Time.now
# ... the code
puts "Calculation took #{Time.now - start_time} seconds"

if the output of the above code like 4.2e-05 seconds, this means the time is too
short to be meaningful.
Fun Math 78

Courtneys version

At first I wrote that the LCM was divisible by num1 OR num2. This was wrong because this
made 6 the LCM of 6 and 12. Instead of using or (||), you need to use and (&&).
When working with the lowest number first, it took much longer to generate the LCM. So I
had to make the higher number always first, and it was quicker.

puts "Enter the first number: "

num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter the second number:"
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
if num1 > num2
check = num1
else
check = num2
end
puts "check = #{check}"
start_time = Time.now
(check..num1 * num2).step(check) do |n|
# puts "n % num1 = #{n % num1}"
# puts "n % num2 = #{n % num2}"
if n % num1 == 0 && n % num2 == 0
puts "The LCM for #{num1} and #{num2} is #{n}"
break
end
end
puts "Calculation took #{Time.now - start_time} seconds"
Fun Math 79

6.4 Finding Prime Numbers

Find prime numbers between 1 and 20.

Prime numbers (up to 20) are : 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19

Prime Number
A prime number is a number that is bigger than one and has no divisors other
than 1 and itself. For example, 5 is prime, since no number except 1 and 5 divides
it. On the other hand, 6 is not a prime (it is a composite), since 6 = 2 x 3.

Analyse

Pseudocode is a high level description of a computer program. The idea of pseudocode is to

convey how the problem shall be solved without being locked with a particular programming
language. The below is a pseudocode for finding prime numbers.
Pseudocode

for each number x in 2 .. 10

for x with 2,3,4,5,6,..., x-1 (another loop)
clear the flag (assuming it is prime number initially)
if number can be divided by x (remainder is 0)
oops, it is not a prime number
mark a flag
break
end
end inner for loop
if no flag set
this is a good prime number (it passed our checks)
print out this prime number
end
end outer for loop

Make sure you completely understand the logic to determine a prime number before coding.
Fun Math 80

Purpose

Ranges in Ruby
Use a flag variable to store a status

Hints

Ruby Range is a set of values within a specified begin and end. For example, (1..4) contains
1, 2, 3 and 4.

(2..5).each do |x|
puts x
end
# will print 2, 3, 4, 5 in four lines.

# convert a range to an array

2..5.to_a # => [2, 3, 4, 5]

Set a flag within a loop, and check it later

This is a common and very useful programming practice.

is_composite = false
[2,3,4,5,6,7].each do |num|
if 8 % num == 0
is_composite = true
break
end
end
if is_composite
puts "8 is a composite number"
end

In above code, the variable is_composite is a flag. It was initially set to false and its value
may be changed by the following computation code. So later we can use its value to determine
the prime numbers.
Fun Math 81

Courtneys version

Courtney struggled with it. I thought due to the following reasons:

Courtney learned prime numbers a few year ago in grade 4. However I dont think her
understanding of prime numbers is good enough to program.
I didnt include the hint of using flag (kind of my fault, now added)
While she understands the ruby ranges and check divisible by using remainder, putting
everything she learnt together still requires practice.
She started with outside loop (2..20) first, which caused confusion when issues came
up

After going through manual steps and further clarification, she managed to get it right.

array = []
(2..20).each do |num|
# check one number is a prime number or not
flag = true
(2..num - 1).each do |x| # try to check each possible divisor
if num % x == 0
flag = false # mark this has divisor
break # no point to check more - composite, moves on to next
end
end
if flag == true # the number has no divisors
array << num # add to prime number list
end
end
puts "Prime numbers (up to 20) are : #{array.join(', ')}"

I asked her to add some comments as well.

Fun Math 82

Divide and Conquer

When writing code with looping, beginner programmers often start with outside
loops. Take this exercise for example. Courtney first wrote:

(2..20).each do |num|
#...
end

This is not optimal. The key to this problem is to determine whether a number is
a prime number or not. The outside loop checking 2..20 is just an icing on the
cake. The correct order for programming this problem is

writing code to check whether the number (variable, e.g. num = 5) is a

prime number
looping within the given range
add prime numbers to a list (initialize outside the loop, add a prime
number inside the loop)
print out the list

By working on the core problem, you will have a better focus. Once you sort out
the core, it is very easy to add the outside loop.
On the other hand, the outside loop and other non-core code might complicate
the issue during programming, especially to inexperienced programmers. Thats
what happened to Courtney. Again, it takes time and practice. Keep coding and
thinking to improve, you will get better on this.
Fun Math 83

6.5 Fibonacci sequence

Start with a pair of rabbits (one male and one female) born on January 1. Assume
that all months are of equal length and that :

1. the first pair of rabbits reproduced two months after their own birth;
2. after reaching the age of two months, each pair produces a mixed pair, (one male, one
female), and then another mixed pair each month thereafter; and
3. no rabbit dies.

How many pairs will there be in the end of each month of first year?

The number of rabbit pairs are:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144

Purpose

Analyse the problem and find out its matching pattern.

Variable assignment

Analyse

Clearly, there is a pattern on the number of rabbit pairs. To find out a pattern, we need to
work out the numbers in first several months, like below.
Fun Math 84

Fibonacci sequence
This is the famous Fibonacci sequence. If you read the book Da Vinci Code,
you might remember fibonacci sequence was used as the password for a safe.
Each new number in Fibonacci sequence is generated by adding the previous two
numbers. By starting with 1 and 1, the first 10 numbers will be:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 21, 34, 55

Hints

Fibonacci sequence starts with first 2 numbers.

num1 = 1
num2 = 1

The algorithm behind this program might seem simple: just produce a number that is the
sum of the previous two. This will test your understanding of variable assignments. In
programming, x = 1 is not x equals to 1, instead means assign 1 to x. Thats why we
can do number increment using a = a + 1, which does not make sense in Math.
Fun Math 85

a = 10
a = a + 1 # now a = 11

The program seems simple with only a few lines of code, however, it is not as simple as you
might think. If you get stuck, think about assigning variables to a new number.
Also, after generating a correct Fibonacci sequence, you will need to think about stopping at
the 12th number (12 months).
Fun Math 86

6.6 Consecutive Sums

Some natural numbers can be written as a sum of consecutive natural numbers.

For example, 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Some can be written in more than one way. For
example, 9 = 2 + 3 + 4 and 9 = 4 + 5. Write a program to output all possible ways
for a given natural number.

Enter a number: 9
9 = 2 + 3 + 4
9 = 4 + 5

Purpose

loop within another loop with different looping variables

loop a number range with a variable
print array element using a custom join character

Analyse

An adding operation involves at least 2 numbers. In other words, the maximum consecutive
natural number in the question can only be (x + 1) / 2. Lets call this number y.
Then we will try to find the consecutive numbers and add them as below:

1 + 2
1 + 2 + 3
# ...
1 + 2 + 3 + ... + y
2 + 3
2 + 3 + 4
# ...
2 + 3 + 4 + ... + y
# ...
(y-1) + y

It is important to understand that there are two loops:

Fun Math 87

the outside loop iterates the starting number

the inside loop decides how many consecutive numbers are used for adding.

Pseudocode

x is the target number

for each number (starting_number) in 1 .. y-1
for each number j in starting_number .. y
calculate the sum (starting_number + 1) + (starting_number + 2) + ... + j
if the sum is equal to x
print out
end
end the internal loop
end loop

Hints

We have done looping with a range before. For convenience, here is another example:

x = 10
(1..x-1).each do |i|
print "#{i}, "
end
# will print 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

To sum a range, we can convert a range into an array by using to_a first, then use the standard
array summing.

(1..100).to_a.inject(0){|sum,item| sum + item} # => 5050

We have used array.join(',') to output an array in a string. In fact, you can use other join
characters, such as + below.

[1, 2, 3, 4].join(" + ") # => "1 + 2 + 3 + 4"

Fun Math 88

6.7 Exercises

Compute PI

Write a program to compute the value of based on the formula.

Compute with different iteration count: 1, 100, 10000 and 1000000. Compare your result with
Rubys built-in constant Math::PI. Your program shall look like:

Enter iteration count: 1

My computation PI = 4.0
Ruby's PI value: 3.141592653589793
7. Methods
With the solution in exercise 6.2 (finding the Highest Common Factor), we can see two code
fragments (getting divisors for a number) that are almost identical, which is not optimal.

puts "Enter first number: "

num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter second number: "
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i

divisors_list_1 = []
(1..num1).each do |x|
check = num1 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_1 << x
end
end

divisors_list_2 = []
(1..num2).each do |x|
check = num2 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_2 << x
end
end

In programming, the methods (also known as functions) removes duplication to make the
code more readable, and most importantly, easy to maintain. A simple way of thinking the
use of a method: a group of code statements that performs a task and can be reused.
A method consists of

1. method name. What does it do?

2. parameters (optional). Input(s) passed to the method, the value of parameters are set
by the callers, i.e. they change.

89
Methods 90

3. returned result. The result returned to the caller.

Lets see an example method:

def add(a, b)
c = a + b
return c
end

Where add is the method name, a and b are the two parameters and c is the result returned
to the caller. In Ruby, return ends the method.
Method names in Ruby are in lowercase. For long method names that have more than one
word, the convention is to join them with an underscore character, such as register_user.
It is a good idea to name your method meaningfully that reveals its purpose.
Here are two code statements calling the add method.

add(1, 5) # => 6
add(100, 500) # => 600

The above looks like math functions such as f(x) = x2 - x + 1. Yes, thats why methods are
also called functions. For example, writing this function in Ruby will look like below:

def f(x)
return x ^ 2 - x + 1
end

7.1 Finding the Highest Common Factor (using method)

Write a program to ask the user to enter two non-negative integers and then
find the highest common factor (HCF). The program must define a method that
return the divisors of a number.
Methods 91

Enter the first number: (8)

Enter the second number: (12)
The HCF of 8 and 12 is: 4

Purpose

Identify duplicated code

Remove duplication by introducing methods.

Hints

You may start with the existing solution of Exercise 6-4.

To define a method, ask the following 4 questions:

1. What does it do? (this helps to name it)

2. What shall I pass to the method?
3. What I expect to return from this method?
4. How do I use the method?

def get_divisors(num)
# ...
end

divisors_list_1 = get_divisors(num_1)
divisors_list_2 = get_divisors(num_2)

# ...

Courtney says:
This time I still spent a long time on it because I had trouble doing the last part
again and finding out the problem (I had put an array inside another array). I
managed to find the problem by printing out the array and using .inspect. The
method was easier than the previous one. Although I had to think about what to
return.
Methods 92

Refactoring
The new code works the same way as our previous version, but it is better, right?
The formal term to describe what you have just done in software programming
is Code Refactoring. Code refactoring is the process of restructuring existing
code without changing its external behavior. To put in my simple words: work
the same outside, improved inside.
Methods 93

7.2 Generate Lotto Numbers (using a method)

Write a program to generate 6 Lotto numbers. Lotto numbers are between 1 and
49. This time, define a method that returns a valid lotto number.

Your winning lotto numbers are [23, 34, 12, 6, 7, 49], good luck!

Purpose

move logic into methods to simplify the code

refer variables outside the method scope

Analyse

This time, we use a method to simplify our code logic. Our target is to get 6 random numbers
from 1 to 49. If we have a method that returns a random and not-appeared-before number,
the solution is simple: calling the method 6 times.

Hints

lotto_numbers = []

def get_next_valid_lotto_number(existing_lotto_numbers)
# randomly generate a number
# check existing_lotto_numbers whether it appeared before
# return one that satisfy, otherwise try again
end

new_valid_number = get_next_valid_lotto_number
lotto_numbers << new_valid_number
Methods 94

7.3 Finding the LCM for multiple numbers (using

method)

Write a program to get the lowest number that is dividable by 1, 2, 3, 4, , 14 and

15.

The lowest number that is dividable by 1 to 15 is: 360360

Purpose

Use the output of a method as a parameter to call the method again

Analyse

This is to calculate the LCM for multiple numbers. We have written a program to calculate
the LCM for two numbers. If we divide 15 numbers into 15 calculations of LCM for two
numbers, we get the answer.

1, 2 => LCM
LCM, 3 => LCM
LCM, 4 => LCM
...
LCM, 15 => LCM

Hints

You may start with the existing solution of Ex6-3, and refactor the code into a method

def lcm(a, b)
# ...
end

lcm(6, 8) # => 24

Then construct a loop to call this method based on our analysis.

8. File and Network
In previous exercises, we have collected data from users input and printed output to the
screen. In this chapter, we will write some programs to

read from and write to files

read data from Internet resources
send emails

8.1 Calculate average score

Write a program that reads the contents of a text file containing scores of a class
(0-100, one each line) and calculates the average score.
The content of the text file looks like the following:

84
78
...
87

The calculated average score is rounded to one decimal point.

> ruby calc_average.rb

The average score is 79.8

Purpose

Read text file into a string

Read text file line by line
Sum a list of integers

95
File and Network 96

Analyse

The student scores are stored in a text file (the file content is in a text format, i.e. recognizable
when opened in text editors. Image files such as JPEG are called binary files).

read scores and process them

sum and calculate the average

Hints

To work with a file, we must identify its path. For example, c:\Users\you\rubycode\score.txt
on Windows; /Users/john/work/rubycode/score.txt on Mac or Linux. A file path is referred
as a string.
The file separator for Windows \ is a special character when specified in a string. When
used in a file path, replace the single backslash with a double backslash to escape the speical
character.

wrong_file_path = "C:\Users\you\rubycode\data\score.txt"
puts wrong_file_path # "C:Usersyou\rubycodedata core.txt"
file_path = "C:\\Users\\you\\rubycode\\data\\score.txt"
puts file_path # "C:\Users\you\rubycode\data\score.txt"

The above file paths are called absolute paths. If a file is referenced this way and the program
is running on another machine, it will fail as the referenced file does not exist. The safest way
is to use relative paths, i.e. the file path is relative to your program.

# please note double underscores before and after FILE

file_path = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "score.txt")

To read all the content of a text file into a string.

file_content = File.read(file_path)
puts file_content # will print out full content

Process the file contents line by line.

File and Network 97

file_content = File.read(file_path)
file_content.split.each do |line|
# ...
end
File and Network 98

8.2 Count words and lines in a text file

Write a program that reads the contents of a file and counts the number of words
and lines in that file.

ruby count_words_and_lines.rb file.txt

file.txt contains 126 words in 13 lines

Purpose

read command line arguments

Analyse

The program is a generic utility, which means we can use the program for different text files.
Therefore, we cannot hardcode the input file path. When running a program, we can pass
arguments to the program. These arguments are called command line arguments.

Hints

Read the first command line argument: ARGV[0]

first_command_line_argument = ARGV[0]
puts "The first argument is: #{first_command_line_argument}"

The following batch command to run the above program

ruby my_program.rb special.txt

will get output

The first argument is: special.txt

The file path passed to the program can either be an absolute path or a relative path to the
current directory. If it is the latter, the following code can convert it to the absolute path.
File and Network 99

# '.' means current directory

input_file_path = File.join(".", first_command_line_argument)
input_file_full_path = File.expand_path(input_file_path)

For counting words (refer to chapter 5) and lines, you can use Strings split method.
File and Network 100

8.3 Mail merge birthday invitation cards

Jessica is planning to invite her friends to her 12th birthday party. Instead of
writing individual invitations, she wants to print them out in cards. Instead of
creating documents one by one, she wants to generate a letter document (a text
file) using the template below:

Dear {{first_name}},

I am celebrating my 12th Birthday on the 1st of April!

Come celebrate with me!

Where: 42 Greed-Island Street, Yorkshin City

When: 2PM to 5PM
RSVP: 24th March (0400-000-000 or [email protected])

Hope to see you there,

Jessica.

Her friends: Pokkle, Angela, Tonpa, Toby, Biscuit, Mito, Kate, Renee, Chloe, Kelly and Melody.
Write a program to help Jessica generate multiple invitation cards as text files such as
pokkle_invitation.txt and angela_invitation.txt.

Purpose

Substitute text in a string

Read text from text files
Write content to text files

Analyse

This is a typical mail-merge type scenario: generating a set of documents. Each document
has the same kind of information, some of the content is unique. We can create a template
where parts of the document that can be substituted.
To perform a substitution, we need
File and Network 101

the section to be replaced in the template. For example, {{first_name}} is the one for
this exercise.
the text to replace into the template, i.e. friends first names.

Once the text is substituted, it can be written into a text file.

Hints

Text Substitution

str_1 = "We scare because we care"

str_2 = str_1.gsub("scare", "laugh") # => "We laugh because we care"
str_3 = str_1.gsub("care", "cure") # => "We scure because we cure"

gsub replaces certain texts in a string and returns a modified string. It does not change the
original string. To make the changes, use gsub!.

puts str_1; # => "We scare because we care"

str_1.gsub!("we", "he")
puts str_1; # => "We scare because he care"

Write string to a text file

new_file_content = "Laugh is the best medicine"

File.open("c:/work/rubycode/output_1.txt", "w").write(new_file_content)

The first argument c:/work/rubycode/output_1.txt is the file path, the second argument
w indicates openning the given file for writing. To append to an existing file, use a for the
second argument.
File and Network 102

8.4 Rename files

Write a program to rename the following files in a directory so that the files are
always shown in alphabetical order and without spaces.
From

to

(the directory with the above sample files can be found at sources/files/book_dir).

Purpose

Process files in a directory

Pattern matching using Regular Expression
Rename files

Analyse

The objective is quite clear and can be divided in the following steps:

1. Iterate each file in a specified directory (by path)

2. Extract the number from the original file name, e.g. 9 from chapter 9.txt
File and Network 103

3. Construct a new file name, e.g. chapter_09.txt

4. Rename the file

As you have mastered looping, it is a good idea to start with just renaming a single file. Once
you have completed that, then process all the files in the directory.

Hints

Get files in a directory

a_directory = "c:/books"
Dir.foreach(directory) do |item|
next if item == '.' or item == '..' # skip this and parent directory
# do something to item
end

The . and .. have special meanings when used in a file path: current directory and parent
directory respectively. For example, the three commands below

> cd c:\foo\bar\ruby
> cd ..
> ..\run.exe

are equal to

> c:\foo\run.exe

Rename files
FileUtils defines a set of utility methods to manage files such as creating a new directory,
copying and renaming files. FileUtils.mv(src, dest) method moves one file (by path),
renaming is one form of moving.

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.0/libdoc/fileutils/rdoc/FileUtils.html
File and Network 104

require 'fileutils' # need to require it first

FileUtils.mv("c:/books/a.txt", "c:/books/b.txt")

Extract text using Regular Expression

Regular Expression (abbreviated regex or regexp) is a pattern of characters that finds
matching text. Almost every programming language supports regular expression, with minor
differences. A typical regular expression usage in Ruby:

if a_str =~ /regular expression here/

# processing matched pattern
end

Regular expression is very powerful and it does take some time to master it well. To get it
going for simple text matching, however, is not hard. Google ruby regular expression shall
return some good tutorials, and Rubular is a helpful tool to let you try out regular expression
online.
Here is an example regression expression for this program:

my_str = "chapter 12.txt"

if my_str =~ /chapter\s(\d+)(.*)/
$1 # => '12'
$2 # => ".txt"
end

where

\d means to match a digit, 0 - 9

\d+ matches 1 or more digits
\s matches a white space character
. matches any one character
* matches none or many any character
() will pass matched text to special variables: $1 for first matched text, $2 for the second.

Adding leading zeros to a string

Rubys String class has a built-in function rjust (right-justified), which makes a string to a
given length with a given padding character.
http://rubular.com/
File and Network 105

"1".rjust(4, "0") # => '0001'

some_int = 7 # to use
some_int.to_s.rjust(3, '0') # => '007'
some_int.to_s.rjust(5, '0') # => '00005'
File and Network 106

8.5 Currency exchange with live quoting

Write a currency conversion program that converts Australian Dollars to

Japanese Yen. To ensure we have a more accurate exchange rate, we will use
Yahoo Finances live currency rate service.
NOTE: Internet connection is required for this exercise.

Enter the amount of Australian dollars: 598

=> 56986.35

If you are unable to connect to Yahoo Finance (e.g. no internet connection), the program shall
exit gracefully with an error message.

Unable to connect to Yahoo Finance, Error: 'getaddrinfo: nodename nor servna\

me provided, or not known'

Purpose

Getting content from a URL

Your program gets dynamic data from a URL and process it (you might have heard of
a fancy name for this: Web Programming).
CSV (Comma Separated Value) file Parsing
CSV is a common format used for exporting as well as importing data. Ruby has a
built-in CSV library to read from and write to CSV files. Below is a sample CSV file:

DESCRIPTION,LOGIN,PASSWORD,EXPECTED_TEXT
Valid Login,agileway,test,Login Successful!
User name not exists,nonexists,smartass,Login is not valid

The easiest way to open CSV files is to use Excel.

Understanding API (Application Programming Interface) concept
You can think API is the way for a software program to interact with another. The
API for this currency change service is to provide live exchange rate in CSV format
via HTTP protocol.
Error handling
File and Network 107

Analyse

Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuates constantly. To do a conversion accurately, a better

way is to use live exchange rate. You can see an example of live exchange rate between
Australian dollar and Japanese Yen.

Hints

Download live exchange rate

Yahoo Finance currency exchange API:
http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=AUDJPY=X&f=sl1d1t1ba&e=.csv
If you paste the above URL in your browser address bar, a small text file named quotes.csv
will be downloaded. Here is what it will look like when opened in Excel:

As the requirement for this program is live exchange rate, we cannot use the downloaded
exchanges rates. In other words, the program shall use the current rate directly from the
currency exchange market. The ruby code below retrieves the exchange rate from a web
address.

require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
csv_data = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse("http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quot\
es.csv?s=AUDJPY=X&f=sl1d1t1ba&e=.csv"))
puts csv_data # string text of rate information in CSV format

HTTP and URI are network terms (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and Uniform Resource
Identifier).
Exception handling
The above code only works if you are connected to Internet and Yahoo Finance server is up
running. If not, you will get an error message like below:

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AUDJPY=X
http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=AUDJPY=X&f=sl1d1t1ba&e=.csv
File and Network 108

ruby-2.1.3/lib/ruby/2.1.0/net/http.rb:879:in `initialize': getaddrinfo: node\

name nor servname provided, or not known (SocketError)

This brings an important concept in programming: Exception handling. An exception means

an anomalous or exceptional condition occurred. The code to handle exceptions is called
exception handling. If an exception is not handled, the program execution will terminate
with the exception displayed. Here is the exception handling syntax in Ruby:

begin
# ...
rescue => e
# code to handle the exception, usually print detail first
end

Lets look at an example.

# ...
begin
5 / 0
rescue => e
puts "Error occurred: #{e}!"
end

puts "I can continue."

During the execution, an exception is raised and then handled. Here is the output:

Error occurred: divided by 0!

I can continue.

Read CSV
File and Network 109

require 'csv'
csv = CSV.parse(csv_data) # a string
csv_first_row = csv.shift # shift returns first row
exchange_rate = csv_first_row[1].to_f # => 95.324

The above code reads and parses CSV data from a string directly. To read from a file:

require 'csv'
customers = CSV.read('customers.csv')

Handling CSV files (reading from and writing to) is very useful. For more information, check
out this tutorial.

http://www.sitepoint.com/guide-ruby-csv-library-part/
File and Network 110

8.6 Send individual thank you emails

Jessica had a birthday party and received gifts from friends. She is now going to
send each of her friends a personalized thank-you email. Instead of sending the
emails one by one, she wants to a program to send emails of each of her friends
by running a single command.
Her thank-you email looks like this:

Dear Angela,

Thank you for coming to my 12th birthday party, I really like the gift you g\
ave me: Cat Statue, thank you very much!

Jessica.

And this is a list of people (with email) and gifts she received.

Pokkle ([email protected]): Bow and Arrows

Angela ([email protected]): Cat Statue
Tonpa ([email protected]): Juice Machine
Toby ([email protected]): Necklace
Biscuit ([email protected]): Blue Jewel
Mito ([email protected]): Cooking Book
Kate ([email protected]): Whale Poster
Renee ([email protected]): Camera
Chloe ([email protected]): Pencil Case
Kelly ([email protected]): Rabbit Ears
Melody ([email protected]): CD

How will Jessica do it?

Purpose

Create own template file for substitution

More complex data structure
Use external Ruby library (gem)
Send emails
A chain of string substitution
File and Network 111

Analyse

This exercise requires the use of more complex data structure and several new concepts.
By examining the sample email, we see three differences among the emails to be sent:

Recipients email address (in the email header)

Recipients first name
The gift brought by the recipient

Therefore, we need to design a data structure to pass all the above data (for each person) to
the template to generate one email. Think about the data structures you have used in Chapter
04: Array and Hash. We need to substitute more than one attribute (first_name and gift) in
the template.
To send an email is quite easy. This kind of generic function is either included in Ruby or
in a third party library (called RubyGems in Ruby). A modern software application uses
many third party libraries, this way, no need to reinvent the wheel. The site Ruby Toolbox
categorizes popular ruby gems including rating and other information. The good news is that
most of Ruby gems are free or charge.
https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/
File and Network 112

Avoid sending test emails to real accounts during

testing
During coding, we often need to have multiple tries before get it right. Using
real email addresses during coding this program is not appropriate, obviously. In
other words, we would like to test email sending to different recipients but wont
reach the recipients email boxes.
Gmail has a feature to send emails to many unique email addresses while still
arrive into one account, by appending + sign after the username:

[email protected]
[email protected]

The emails sent to the above two addresses will arrive into [email protected],
and the To: address will keep the +extra you provided.

Hints

Hash in Array
We have learnt about Array (a data structure that stores a list of values), such as
File and Network 113

["QLD", "NSW", "WA"]

and Hash, such as

{ "QLD" => "Brisbane", "NSW" => "Sydney", "WA" => "Perth"}

But what about grouping a set of related data with the same keys. It is easier to explain with
an example. Lets say, I want a data structure to store the capital city and the state flower of
Australian states. This data structure is different from the above, because the capital city and
the state flower are different kind of data, but they both are associated to the same key: state
name. How do we do that?
The answer is simple: group the capital city and the state flower. In Ruby, you can put a list
of Hash in an array.

au_states_info = [
{:state => "QLD", :capital => "Brisbane", :state_flower => "Cooktown Orchid\
"},
{:state => "NSW", :capital => "Sydney", :state_flower => "Waratah"},
# ...
]

To iterate au_states_info

au_states_info.each do |entry|
entry[:state] # first loop will be "QLD", next will be "NSW"
entry[:capital] # first "Brisbane", then "Sydney"
entry[:state_flower] # first "Cooktown Orchid"
end

Multiple text substitution

The following 3 statements change the string We scare because we care to We smile because
we like.
File and Network 114

str_1 = "We scare because we care"

str_2 = str_1.gsub("scare", "smile")
str_3 = str_2.gsub("care", "like") # => "We smile because we like"

This works, however, it seems verbose. The one command achieves the same.

str = "We scare because we care".gsub("scare", "smile").gsub("care", "like")

The important concept here is that the output of the first operation "We scare because we
care".gsub("scare", "smile") is then applied by another gsub("care", "like") method.
This syntax is used often in coding.
Install ruby gems
Ruby gems are centrally hosted at rubygems.org. To install or update a ruby gem, you need
to be connected to Internet.

> gem install mail

The above command (run from a command line window) will download and install latest
mail gem. The command below lists all the gems installed on your machine.

> gem list

Configure email delivery setting

Just like using an email client (Outlook on Windows or Mail on Mac OS X) for the first time,
we need to configure the setting. This is to tell the email client to use which server, user
name and password. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a common protocol for email
delivery. The code below configures the Mail gem to use Gmail.

http://rubygems.org
https://github.com/mikel/mail
File and Network 115

# Gmail options

require 'mail'

options = {
:enable_starttls_auto => true,
:address => 'smtp.gmail.com',
:port => 587,
:authentication => 'plain',
:user_name => '[email protected]', # replace with yours
:password => 'secret'
}

Mail.defaults do
delivery_method :smtp, options
end

This setting only need to be done once in the program.

Send an email

Mail.deliver do
from '[email protected]'
to '[email protected]'
subject 'Here is the stuff I mentioned'
body 'Body content goes here' # or File.read('/file/path/to/body.txt')
# optional attachments
# add_file '/full/path/to/somefile.png'
end

Use a control flag

The above settings can be used to send out emails to mock email addresses. However, what
happens if you want to switch to using a real email address? A more efficient way to handle
this scenario is the use a flag. A flag helps determine is something is true or false; this is
commonly achieved by setting a boolean variable:
File and Network 116

test_mode = true
# ...

if test_mode
# ...
else
# ...
end

Ternary conditional: compact if statement

We used if and else a lot, which usually requires 5 statements (by lines). Sometimes we
would like a more compact form. For example, the code below sets email address based on
the test_mode flag:

if test_mode
the_email = "[email protected]"
else
the_email = "[email protected]"
end

Mail.deliver do
to the_email
# ...
end

The code works, but it seems verbose. Rubys ternary operator(also called ternary condi-
tional) is a shorthand for if ... else. The general format of this expression is as follows:
condition ? true : false
The code above can be refactored (means enhanced without changing its outcome) as below
using Ternary Condition:
File and Network 117

Mail.deliver do
to test_mode ? "[email protected]" : "[email protected]"
# ...
end

Code is for computers as well as Human

While the code is for machines to execute, dont forget its another important
audience: human being. Software requires regular updates and being maintained,
you and fellow programmers will need to understand and modify the code
some time later. By then, well written code will make future work easier, more
importantly, reduce the chance of introducing defects. This might take years to
master, but I would suggest developing habits to put some thoughts for code
quality when programming.
File and Network 118

8.7 Exercises

GradesHistogram

Write a program that reads grades (between 0 and 100, integer) from a text file and display
the histogram.
For example:

49 50 51 59 0 5 9 10 15 19 50 68 55 89 100 99

Output:

0 - 9: ***
10 - 19: ***
20 - 29:
30 - 39:
40 - 49: *
50 - 59: *****
60 - 69: *
70 - 79:
80 - 89: *
90 -100: **
9. Object Oriented Programming
Ruby is an object-oriented programming language. Please bear with me if you have no idea
what object-oriented is.
I remember that it took me quite a while to understand object-oriented concept when I was
at university back in early 90s. I had no tools to try, just read theories from books. It turned
out to be quite simple if it was illustrated with examples. Here is one:

Car is a class, a type of something, it has following two functions (plus many more):

accelerate
brake

My car (the one in my garage) is an object of Car, it can do brake and accelerate. I can
physically drive it.
Now have a think about statements below:

my_car = Car.new
my_car.accelerate
your_camry = Car.new
your_camry.brake

You may recall some code we have used:

a_string = "Ruby is cool"

a_string.size # => 12
iphones = ["iPhone 4s", "iPhone 5S", "iPhone 5C"]
iphones.sort #=>["iPhone 4s", "iPhone 5C", "iPhone 5S"]

a_string is an object of class String, and iphones is an object of class Array. Here is how
to find out an objects class.

119
Object Oriented Programming 120

a_string.class # => String

iphones.class # => Array

The reason we are able to call .size and .sort is because these methods are defined in the
String and Array classes respectively.

Most modern programming languages support Object-oriented programming (OOP). Mas-

tering OOP is a must for programmers nowadays.

9.1 Calculator (Class)

Write a Calculator class that contains two methods:

Add two numbers

Subtract two numbers

puts calc.add(2, 3) # => 5

puts calc.minus(17, calc.add(2, 3) ) # => 12

Purpose

Define a class
Define methods in a class
Create a new instance (object) of a class
Invoke a method on an object

Analyse

This program is quite easy if using standard methods (Chapter 7). The purpose of this exercise
is to do it in a class, object-oriented way. If you understand the basic Ruby Class syntax and
usage (see below), this exercise is quite straightforward.

Hints

define a class
A Ruby Class name needs to in capital case, for example, BankAccount.
Object Oriented Programming 121

class BankAccount

# ...

end

define methods in a class

The definition of methods in classes are the same as standard methods (Chapter 7), except
that they are within the scope of a class. To put simply, the methods in a class are only
available to its objects.

class BankAccount

def transfer(amount, another_account)

# ...
end

end

create objects using new method

Objects are instances of the class.

require 'bank_account.rb' # if BankAccount is defined in another file

saving_account = BankAccount.new
cheque_account = BankAccount.new

invoke an objects method

saving_account.transfer(100, cheque_account)
Object Oriented Programming 122

9.2 Age of Teacher and Students

A school consists of teachers and students, and students are grouped by grades.
Write a program to calculate

a teachers age
the average age of teachers
the average age of Grade 10 students

teacher_1 = Teacher.new("James Bond", "1968-04-03") # name, birthday

teacher_2 = Teacher.new("Michael Zasky", "1978-01-02")

students = []
students << Student.new("John Sully", "1999-10-03", 10) # 10 is grade
students << Student.new("Michael Page", "1999-05-07", 11)
students << Student.new("Anna Boyle", "1998-12-03", 10)
students << Student.new("Dominic Chan", "1999-09-10", 10)

Output:

Teacher 'James Bond' age: 46

Average Teacher age: 41.0
The number of Grade 10 students: 3
Average Grade 10 students age: 15.0

Purpose

Instance variables
Read and write instance variables
Class Constructor
Class Inheritance
Age calculation
Use of array operations (review)
Object Oriented Programming 123

Analyse

The core function is to calculate ages, and we have two identified Classes Teacher and
Student (from the code fragment). We could write two get_age functions in both Teacher
and Student classes, however this is not correct. You wouldnt want to write another get_age
method to support another class AdminStaff.
Calculating ages (from birth date) is a common function for human. In OOP, we can move
common methods into its parent class, then its child classes inherit them. This is called
Inheritance (see hints below). For this exercise, we can create another class Person with
age method, then make Teacher and Student inherit from Person. Here is the class diagram
for the design.

After deciding the class design at high level, we turn to Class internals. Each teacher or
student has name and birthdate (needed for calculating the age). Student also shall have
a grade. These are attributes of a Class, also known as class instance variables (see hints
below).
Let me illustrate with an example:

John Sully is a 10 Grade student, he was born in 1999-10-23

James Bond is a teacher, born in 1968-10-03

The information can be represented in this code:

john_sully = Student.new("John Sully", "1999-10-23", 10)

james_bond = Teacher.new("James Bond", "1968-04-03")

where john_sully is an object (or instance) of class Student and james_bond is an object of
class Teacher. The data in brackets were stored in each objects attributes.
Object Oriented Programming 124

john_sully.grade # => 10
james_bond.name # => "James Bond"

The business function of this exercise is to calculate age from birth date. We all know how
to do it: comparing the birth date against todays date. However, this can be a bit tricky. See
hints for how to use Rubys built-in date helper methods.

Hints

Class instance variables

A class usually has certain attributes, such as Person has name, birth date, .

class Person
def name
return @name # instance variable
end
end

person = Person.new
person.name # = nil
person.name = "Courtney" # => no method error

We can read the name, but couldnt assign the name. So we add a writer method.

class Person
def name
@name
end

def name=(str)
@name = str
end
end

person = Person.new
person.name = 'Dominic'
person.name # => "Dominic"
Object Oriented Programming 125

Now we can read and write instance variable @name using reader and writer methods. As this
is used very often, Ruby has a simple way:

class Person
attr_reader :name
attr_writer :name
end

and even simpler:

class Person
attr_accessor :name
end

Class Constructor
Assuming we have a class Person with two attributes name and birth_date (defined as above
using attr_accessor), the code below creates two Person objects.

john_smith = Person.new
john_smith.name = "John Smith"
john_smith.birth_date = "2000-01-01"

mary_boyle = Person.new
mary_boyle.name = "Mary Boyle"
mary_boyle.birth_date = "1999-10-21"

Calling Class.new creates an object of the class. There is a special method inside Class to
respond to this operation: initialize. This method is also called Constructor. Except its
special meaning (returning a new object) and predefined method name initialize, the
syntax of a constructor is pretty much like a method.
Object Oriented Programming 126

class Person
attr_accessor :name, :birth_date

# constructor
def initialize(a_name, a_birth_date)
@name = a_name
@birth_date = a_birth_date
end

end

By using our own constructor, we can create person objects in a more readable form.

john_smith = Person.new("John Smith", "2000-01-01")

mary_boyle = Person.new("Mary Boyle", "1999-10-21")

Class Inheritance
Inheritance is a relation between two classes. For example, seagulls and parrots are both
birds, thus they share the common features of birds.

class Bird
def fly
puts "I am flying"
end
end

class Seagull < Bird

end

class Parrot < Bird

def speak
puts "if someone teaches me"
end
end

seagull = Seagull.new
seagull.fly # => "I am flying"
Object Oriented Programming 127

parrot = Parrot.new
parrot.fly # => "I am flying"
parrot.speak # => "if someone teaches me"

seagull.speak # NoMethodError: undefined method `speak' for #<Seagull:0x007f\

bb29217078>

By using inheritance, the code (defined in methods) can be reused.

Override methods
Child classes may override its parent behaviour by supplying new implementation: defining
the same method with different statements inside.

class Ostrich < Bird

def fly
puts "I'd rather run"
end
end

ostrich = Ostrich.new
ostrich.fly #=> "I'd rather run"

Date calculation
Ruby has built-in date helper methods,

require 'date' # need to load first

# assume today is 2014-11-25
Date.today.to_s # => "2014-11-07"
Date.today.class # => Date
Date.today.year = 2014
Date.today.month = 11
Date.today.day = 25

The above date methods such as .month are defined in Date class. Commonly, we start with
a date string (user entered), to convert a Date object:
Object Oriented Programming 128

Date.parse("2014-01-29") # => a date object

For more Date methods, see doc.

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.1.1/libdoc/date/rdoc/Date.html
Object Oriented Programming 129

9.3 Calculate Sales Tax

The sales tax in Australia is called Goods and services tax (GST) of 10%, which
is applied to most products and services. For example, in a physio clinic, medical
services such as physiotherapy is GST-free, however GST applies to pilates classes
(also a service), so is to all products sold at the clinic. All business must show GST-inclusive
prices. For example, for a $10 meal, $9.09 is net amount and $0.91 is sales tax.
Complete the program below to calculate the net amount and sales tax of product and
services.

# ... define Class Goods and ServiceItem

foam_roller = Goods.new("Foam Roller", 49.95)

physio_service = ServiceItem.new("Physio Consultation", 120.0)
pilates_class = ServiceItem.new("Pilates Classes", 80.0)
pilates_class.sales_tax_applicable = true
# ... statements to print out product and services' net amount and sale tax

Output:

Foam Roller Net Amount: 45.41, GST: 4.54

Physio Consultation Net Amount: 120.0, GST: 0.0
Pilates Classes Net Amount: 72.73, GST: 7.27

Purpose

Class Design
Module and Mixin
Class Constructor setting default value of instance variables

Analyse

From the given code fragment, two classes Goods and ServiceItem need to be defined.
The sales tax calculation code is shared between the two classes. There are two common
approaches to achieve code reuse:
Object Oriented Programming 130

Inheritance
Mixin

We have used Inheritance in the previous exercise. Here we will be using Mixin. Before
we get to Mixin, we need to understand a new concept Module. A Module is another way to
group a set of methods and constants. Below is an example:

module A

def a
end

def b
end

end

As you can see, it is quite similar to Class in terms of syntax and structure. You may
wonder, why bother module? When a module is included in a class (Mixin), its methods are
available to the class instances, i.e., code reuse. The difference of class inheritance: Mixin is
about providing methods that you can use across multiple classes; Inheritance is more about
structure (attributes and methods).
Effective use of Mixin can make your Ruby code more flexible and concise. Popular Ruby on
Rails framework uses Mixins extensively.
For this exercise, as GST calculation is the same, it makes sense to create a module GSTCalc
containing GST-calcluation methods.

module GSTCalc
GST_RATE = 10.0

def net_amount
# ...
end

def gst
# ...
Object Oriented Programming 131

end

end

Then you can include the module in your classes: Mixin.

class ServiceItem
include GSTCalc
# ...
end

class Goods
include GSTCalc
# ...
end

foam_roller = Goods.new("Foam Roller", 49.95)

foam_roller.gst # calling the method in GSTCalc

Hints

The concept of Mixin can be quite confusing to beginners, certainly was the case
for Courtney. I would recommend writing the program in the standard OO way:

Design the Classes first

Identify their attributes
Identify their methods
Implement the methods

Then try to introduce Mixin to optimize the program: remove the code duplication.
Setting default value to instance variables in the constructor
Quite common, the value of certain instance variables are the same for most cases. Instead
of an parameter in the class constructor, we could set the default value. If necessary, we can
change its value via a setter method (object.attr = ).
Object Oriented Programming 132

class Student
attr_accessor :name, :is_talented

def initialize(a_name)
@name = a_name
@is_talented = false
end
end

john = Student.new("John Smith")

john.is_talented #=> false

newton = Student.new("Newton")
newton.is_talented = true
newton.is_talented #=> true

Module example: Logging

The module below provides message logging (print out in a formatted way, typically to a
file).

module Logging

def log(message)
puts "[#{Time.now}] [#{self.class.name}] #{message}"
end

end

To utilize the logging, we need to add include Logging in the class.

Object Oriented Programming 133

class A
include Logging
end

class B
include Logging
end

class C
end

a = A.new
b = B.new
c = C.new

a.log("in A") # => [2014-11-08 16:07:32 +1000] [A] in A

b.log("in B") # => [2014-11-08 16:07:32 +1000] [B] in B
c.log("in C") # => undefined method `log' for #<C:xxx> (NoMethodError)

c.log() failed because the class C did not include the Logging module, therefore the method
log is not available. Please note that output the log message printed out class names
dynamically based on which class it is called from.
Access instance variables in module methods
Once a module is loaded in a class (Mixin), its method is called as a method defined in the
class. In this exercise, the sales_tax_applicable attribute of class ServiceItem obviously
affects the GST calculation.

physio_service = ServiceItem.new("Physio Consultation", 120.0)

pilates_class = ServiceItem.new("Pilates Classes", 80.0)
pilates_class.sales_tax_applicable = true

This means in our GSTCalc module, it must refer the instance variable @sales_tax_appli-
cable.
Object Oriented Programming 134

module GSTCalc
# ...

def gst
if @sales_tax_applicable # check the object's instance variable
# ...
else
return 0.0
end
end

end
Object Oriented Programming 135

9.4 Library System

Implement a simplified library system. Initially, the librarian can import book
records into the system via a CSV file. Members of the library can borrow and
return books.

Library.import_books(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files","books.csv"))
Library.book_count # => 10

The format of CSV file:

TITLE, AUTHOR
The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

Here is an example use of the library system:

john = Member.new("John Sully", "1001")

mike = Member.new("Mike Zasky", "1002")

book = Library.find_by_title("Practical Web Test Automation")

Library.borrow(john, book)
# Output "OK"
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output: The book 'Practical Web Test Automation' is not available!
Library.return(book)
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output "OK"

Purpose

Class Methods
Class Variables
Class Design
Load CSV data into objects
Find matching objects in an array
Object Oriented Programming 136

Analyse

By examining the nouns in the description of this exercise, we can identify 3 classes:

Book
Book has two attributes: title and author.
Member
Member has two attributes: name and member_id.
Library
The main class for this exercise. Library members belong to the library, so are the
books. So Library has to attributes: books and members. Because there will be only
one instance of Library, we dont need to create it, just use Library class directly.
books and members are class variables (see hints below) of Library. borrow, return
and find_by_title are Librarys class methods.

Not all classes can be directly extracted from the problem description. For example, book
lending is associated to records, a Rental class.

Rental
borrowing records containing the member and the book (not the book title as there can
be multiple copies of the same book). The rental records can be used check a members
borrowing history and a books lending history.

Hints

Class Variables and Class Methods

In comparison to instance variables, class variables are shared by all instances of a Class. Let
me illustrate with an example,

johns car is Honda Accord

mikes car is Toyota Camry

Both cars are Sedan, I can represent this in Ruby Class:

Object Oriented Programming 137

class Sedan
attr_accessor :make, :model

def initialize(make, model)

@make = make
@model = model
end
end

johns_car = new Sedan("Honda", "Accord")

mikes_car = new Sedan("Toyota", "Camry")

Obviously, the make and model are instance variables, as different objects may have different
values. Now, if I ask you how many wheels does Johns car or Mikes car have? The answer
is 4. In fact, 4 is the answer to all sedans. The number_of_wheels is a Class Variable of Sedan:

class Sedan

@@number_of_wheels = 4

# definition of a class method, starting with self.

def self.number_of_wheels
return @@number_of_wheels
end

end

Sedan.number_of_wheels # => 4

Librarys Class variables

Object Oriented Programming 138

class Library
@@books = []
@@members = []
@@rentals = []

# ...
end

Librarys Class Methods

class Library

def self.import_books(file)
# read CSV and create book objects (see the hint below)
end

def self.borrow(member, book)

# create rental object
# update book status
end

# and more ...

end

A checked out book is not available to borrow, have a think about how to ensure that.
Load CSV data into objects
Parse the CSV file (we covered CSV in Chapter 8), then create objects from the data.
Object Oriented Programming 139

require 'csv'
CSV.foreach(csv_file) do |row|
next if row[0] == 'TITLE' # skip the heading row
a_book = Book.new
a_book.title = row[0]
a_book.author = row[1]
a_book.status = "available"
@@books << a_book
end

Find matching objects in an array

Using Arrays built-in select method.

def self.find_by_title(book_title)
the_book = @@books.select{|x| x.title == book_title }.first
if the_book.nil?
puts "Book #{book_title} not found"
end
return the_book
end
Object Oriented Programming 140

9.5 Sunflower vs Zombies Game Simulation

This is a simplified simulation of the famous Plants vs Zombies Game. A

sunflower is on the left of the field, zombies come towards the sunflower (to
eat it) one by one. The purpose of the game is to let the sunflower to survive one
wave of attack (15 zombies).

Each step a zombie makes, there will be exchange of fire (the sunflower shoots seeds to
the zombie; the zombie throws stones to the sunflower), both the sunflower and the zombie
receive a certain degree of damage to their health. If the attacking zombies health down to
0%, the zombie dies and then comes another until no more. If the sunflowers health reaches
0%, game over.
Game rules:

The health level of the sunflower and zombies start at 100%

Zombie needs to travel 10 steps to get to the sunflower
During exchange of fire, the damage to the zombie and the sunflower are nondeter-
ministic. The sunflower receives a lot less damage than the zombie.
If a zombie arrives next to the sunflower, it will cause bigger damage to the sunflower.
There is a rare specie of Jump Zombie who can move two steps at a time.
The game speed is adjustable.

User Interface (UI) requirement:

This simulation is dynamically presented in text (not graphic), the zombies and the sunflower
are represented as Z(health) and F(health) respectively. The movement of zombies is
indicated by placing the zombie in the field as below.

F(100) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z87
F( 98) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z38 ___
F( 95) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z00 ___ ___
Object Oriented Programming 141

While the above show 3 lines of printed out text, in the simulation, there shall be only one
(see hints). The line text is re-printed again and again to achieve a Motion effect.
if the sunflower wins,

F( 11) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z00 ___ ___

You Win! Flower survived attacks from 15 zombies.

if the zombies win,

F( 0) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z18 ___ ___ ___

Game Over! 2 zombies left.

Purpose

Game Design
Use of Class Variables and Class Methods
Overwrite previously printed line

Analyse

This program is quite complex, as always, it is a good idea to start with class design.
Clearly, we have two classes: Sunflower and Zombie. There are one Sunflower instance and
15 Zombie instances. The health attributes of both classes are used to determine live or death
of an object.
The distance a zombie has travelled can be used for determining whether to apply close-
combat damage. Jump Zombie moves 2 steps at one go, so there should be a speed attribute.
After defined the attributes, we move on to the methods (or behaviours).
Flower

exchange_fire: called when a zombie move forward a step. This records the damage
to the sunflower and the only zombie in the field. We can add randomness there to
increase unpredictability of simulation.
Object Oriented Programming 142

die: health down to 0%.

Zombie

move_forward: move one or two steps based on the objects speed.

die: health down to 0%.

We can also add some helper methods such as is_dead?, in_touch_distance?.

With the class design completed, we move to the game engine. The game is running as long
as the sunflower is alive and there are zombies remaining. A typical while loop here. Within
each loop,

check and locate the next zombie. The game ends if no more.
the active zombie move forward a step (or two steps if is a Jumpy) and exchange fire
with the sunflower.
print out the battle scene

Hints

CONSTANTS
A constant is like a variable, except that its value is supposed to remain constant for the
duration of the program. A Ruby constants name starts with an upper case letter, commonly
all upper cases.

NUMBER_OF_ZOMBIES = 10

If you change the value of a constant later, Ruby will give a warning, though the value is still
modified.

# ...
NUMBER_OF_ZOMBIES = 15 # warning: already initialized constant

Using class variables in the game

Object Oriented Programming 143

class Zombie
@@live_count = 0

def initialize
# ...
@@live_count += 1
end

def self.remaining_lives
@@live_count
end
end

zombies = []
3.times { zombies << Zombie.new }
puts Zombie.remaining_lives # => 3

Overwrite previously printed line

We used puts a lot, which prints out text and a new line. To just print out text, use print.

puts "Good"
puts "Morning"
print "See "
print "You"
print "Later"

Output:

Good
Morning
See YouLater

To overwrite previously printed line, add \r (carriage return without a line feed).
Object Oriented Programming 144

print "First Line"

sleep 1 # to see "First Line" displayed briefly
#... no other puts or print statements
print "\rSecond Line"

The final output will be only Second Line.

Object Oriented Programming 145

9.6 Exercises

Calculate Shape Area

Define four classes: Shape, Rectangle, Triangle and Square. Define area method and
attributes in these classes to calculate the shape area. The usage like below:

puts Triangle.new(10, 5).area()

puts Rectangle.new(10, 5).area()
puts Square.new(10).area()

Try using Class Inheritance as possible.

Hints

Draw a diagram like the one in Exercise 9.2 first.

10. Classic Puzzles
In this chapter, we will use our coding skills to solve some fun puzzles. You might have seen
them before, but solving it with code will be more interesting.

10.1 Google Labs Aptitude Test

Solve this cryptic equation, every letter represent a distinct number between 0 -
9. No leading zeros are allowed. (This was a Google Interview question).

WWWDOT
- GOOGLE
--------
DOTCOM

Purpose

Using nested loops

Trying with unique numbers within nested loops

Analyse

We have 9 letters here.

W D O T G L E C M

W, G and D cannot be 0.
A brute-force way is to try every combination of 26 alphabetic characters using fast
computing power of the computers:

W = 1, D = 0, O = 0, T = 0, G = 0, L = 0, E = 0, C = 0, M = 0

146
Classic Puzzles 147

W = 1, D = 0, O = 0, T = 0, G = 0, L = 0, E = 0, C = 0, M = 1
W = 1, D = 0, O = 0, T = 0, G = 0, L = 0, E = 0, C = 0, M = 2

W = 1, D = 0, O = 0, T = 0, G = 0, L = 0, E = 0, C = 0, M = 9
W = 1, D = 0, O = 0, T = 0, G = 0, L = 0, E = 0, C = 1, M = 0

, until find a solution.

We all know that this is not efficient. However, sometimes a simple solution utilising
computing power is not a bad idea.
For these 9 letters, each represents a unique digit (0-9). Brute force method means trying 1 -
9 for W, within this loop, trying 0-9 for D until to the 9th letter M. The core logic is within
the most inner loop:

construct the top number (WWWDOT)

construct the bottom number (GOOGLE)
construct the result (DOTCOM)
print out the solution if the top number minus the bottom number is equal to the result

A brute force approach usually takes quite a while to solve, due to a large number of looping.
It is important to add constraints to reduce the number of loops (the code checking the
calculation). For example, by adding checking for uniqueness (if W is 1, D cannot be 1, O
cannot be equal to W and D, , etc), the number of effective loops is reduced to 2,540,160,
from possible 729,000,000!

Hints

Nested Loops
The code below prints a 9x9 times table.

for i in 1..9 do
for j in 1..9 do
puts "#{i}x#{j} = #{i*j}"
end
end

Output:
Classic Puzzles 148

1 x 1 = 1
1 x 2 = 2
1 x 3 = 3
1 x 4 = 4
1 x 5 = 5
1 x 6 = 6
1 x 7 = 7
1 x 8 = 8
1 x 9 = 9
2 x 1 = 2
2 x 2 = 4
...
9 x 9 = 81

Construct a number from digits

a = 3
b = 6
c = 5
num_days = a * 100 + b * 10 + c # => 365
Classic Puzzles 149

10.2 Fibonacci and HCF (Recursion)

We have done the Fibonacci exercise before. This time, we will use Recursion.
Before I explain what is Recursion, lets examine the formula of Nth Fibonacci
number:

fib(1) = 1
fib(2) = 1
fib(n) = fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)

For example, if I asked you what is the 6th fibonacci number?. Some may say easy, I can
answer straight away. What if I change the question to 674th Fibonacci number? By now, I
hope you have developed the habit of thinking like a computer. Back to the question, have
a look at this worksheet?

As you see, we dont know the answer to fib(6), fib(5) and fib(4). Until we reach fib(3)
= fib(2) + fib(1), as fib(2) and fib(1) are known. Then we use the result to work
backwards to get fib(4), fib(5) and fib(6). This is a Recursion method.
Recursion refers to a method which solves a problem by solving a smaller version of the
problem and then using that result to work out the answer to the original problem. In the
context of programming, a recursive method calls itself. This might seem complex and hard
to comprehend. If we change the thinking angle, it actually can be quite natural to certain
problems.
Recursion can only be a applied to certain problems; where the problem (usually in a form of a
formula) can be broken into smaller problems, like Fibonacci. Here is a solution to Fibonacci:
Classic Puzzles 150

def fibonacci(n)
return n if n <= 1
( fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2) )
end
puts fibonacci(10) # => 55

The code is quite concise, isnt it? Lets examine this code.

1. Method definition with parameters.

def fibonacci(n) is a normal method, but it is called twice within the method self.
The parameters of a recursion method is important.
2. End cause.
Without that, a method calling itself will lead to an infinite loop. return n if n <=
1 means if the parameter n is less than or equal to 1, the call returns a result back. This
only ends the current method call, its result will be returned to other recursive method
calls that have been waiting.
3. Calculation with calling itself.
The core logic is based on the identified formula.

Try using recursion to solve Highest Common Factor (HCF) problem with Euclidean
algorithm, a much more efficient way. The algorithm:

hcf(a, 0) = a
hcf(a, b) = hcf(b, a mod b)

Hints

Math Mod
The remainder of a division.

10 % 4 # => 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_common_divisor#Using_Euclid.27s_algorithm
Classic Puzzles 151

10.3 Calculate Compound Interest

We earn interest on the money deposited in the bank. The interest we receive
for the first year will be added to the principal (and then calculate the interest
for the next year), this is called Compound Interest. Write a program to calculate
how much money you will receive back at the given rate after certain years.

Enter deposited amount : $10000

Enter interest rate (8% enter 0.08): 0.06
For how long (years): 12

After 12 years, you will get $20121.96

Purpose

Recursion
Review reading user input and printing formatted output

Analyse

Calculating compound interest, maybe less obvious than Fibonacci sequence, can also be
solved with recursion. The essence of the compound interest is that the principal (money we
deposit in the bank) plus the interest of the year becomes the new principal for the next year.

Hints

Make effective use of parameters of a recursion method.

# ...
the_total = compound_interest(amount, rate, years)

Recursion
Classic Puzzles 152

principal = principal + rate * principal # new principal for this year

compound_interest(principal, rate, years-1)

Rule of 72 for estimating compound interest

A quicker way to find out the number of years requires to double your money at a given
interest rate: Divide the interest rate into 72. For example, if the interest rate is 8%, 72 / 8
9 years.
Verify Rule of 72 with your program.
Classic Puzzles 153

10.4 Farmer Crosses River Puzzle

A farmer wants to cross a river and take with him a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage.
There is a boat that can fit himself plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage.
If the wolf and the goat are alone on one shore, the wolf will eat the goat. If the
goat and the cabbage are alone on the shore, the goat will eat the cabbage.
How can the farmer bring the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river?

Step 0
[] <= [:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage]
Step 1 [:farmer, :sheep] forward
[:farmer, :sheep] <= [:wolf, :cabbage]
Step 2 [:farmer] backward
[:sheep] <= [:farmer, :wolf, :cabbage]
Step 3 [:farmer, :wolf] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :sheep] <= [:cabbage]
Step 4 [:farmer, :sheep] backward
[:wolf] <= [:farmer, :sheep, :cabbage]
Step 5 [:farmer, :cabbage] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :cabbage] <= [:sheep]
Step 6 [:farmer] backward
[:wolf, :cabbage] <= [:farmer, :sheep]
Step 7 [:farmer, :sheep] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage] <= []
Done!

Purpose

Backtracking algorithm

Analyse

Remember your first attempts on this famous puzzle, maybe like this:

1. Choose farmer and over the river, oops, back.

2. Choose farmer and sheep over the river, check, good.
Classic Puzzles 154

1. farmer back, still good.

2. farmer and cabbage cross, OK.
3. farmer back, oops! back.
3.

This trial and error method is called backtracking in programming. Backtracking is an

algorithmic paradigm that tries different possibilities until a solution is found.

make_a_move {

if all crossed river? {

print out all moves
exit
}

for each four items including the farmer {

move the item with the farmer, if item is farmer just move him

if is_safe? and has_not_done_this_move_before? {

make_a_move
} else {
undo_the_move
}
}
}

End cause
All three items and the farmer crossed the river.
Constraints

1. Farmer does not cross river empty handed as there is no point of doing that. He can
come back empty handed though.
2. The item to be moved has to be on the same side with the farmer
3. Safety check
sheep and cabbage cannot be on the same side without the farmer
wolf and sheep cannot be on the same side without the farmer
4. The move has not been done before
Classic Puzzles 155

Hints

Data Design
For a complex program, it is important to design the data structure at first.

Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs is a famous book by Niklaus Wirth, published

in 1976.

Besides simple data types (such as Integer and String), we have used the following composite
types:

Array
Hash
Class

For this puzzle, the data structures are relatively simple.

@item_positions = { :farmer => :not_crossed, :wolf => :not_crossed, :sheep =\

> :not_crossed, :cabbage => :not_crossed }
@items = [:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage]
@direction = :forward # default, another value :backward

I used instance variables @xxx here. As this is a quite complex program, several methods will
be used. By using instance variables, I can use them in any methods without worrying about
the scopes.
Once the data is defined, it is not hard to write the following methods:

check whether all items are crossed?

def is_all_crossed_river?
# check for @item_positions
end

is safe to cross?
Classic Puzzles 156

def is_safe?
# check @item_positions, both sides!
end

is the item with the farmer?

def is_item_with_farmer?(item)
# check @item_positions
end

move one item (with or just the farmer)

def move(item)
# change value for the item and the farmer in @item_positions
# toggle @direction
end

undo the previous move as it does not satisfy the constraints

def undo_move(item)
# revert value for the item and the farmer in @item_positions
# toggle @direction
end

Store moving log

We need to keep a record of every movement made so that we can print out the solution.

# moving log starts with all in one side

@moving_log = { 0 => @item_positions.dup }

The above statement stores the step number and the items position in a hash. dup stands for
duplicate; this creates a copy of the object so that the original object wont be affected by
changes.
For every move, we add it to the @moving_log. When reaching the solution (all items crossed),
we print out the moving log.
There is also another use of the moving log: check whether a move has already been done?
Classic Puzzles 157

def has_done_before?
# check the moving log whether have seen current item positions before?
end

Backtracking
This is the core part of the program: the recursive method. Its purpose: make a move if satisfies
the constraints.

def cross

if is_all_crossed_river?
# print moving log
# exit
end

@items.each do |item|
# ignore if not satifsying a move, eg. not going with the farmer
# move item

if is_safe? && !has_done_before? # seems OK after the move

# add the moving log
# increment step
cross(); # try next move, recursive
else
# undo the move
end

end
end
Classic Puzzles 158

10.5 Cryptic Math Equation (Backtracking)

Solve this cryptic equation, each letter stands for a unique digit (0-9). There are no leading
zeros.

UK
USA
+ USSR
--------
AGING

Purpose

Backtracking to solve number puzzles

Analyse

The brute-force approach (we used in Google Labs Aptitude Test) will work for this puzzle,
but wont be elegant. We could use backtracking to solve this puzzle.
We have 8 letters here.

U K S A R G I N

For each letter, possible values are 0 - 9. Then our backtracking algorithm can be

Starting with first letter U, assign it posssible value 0

Then next letter K, assign another possible value 1 as long as it has not been used
before
Up to the last letter N, then we get a combination
Check the combination, if not match (most likely), go back one step
Assign next possible value to N, check the new combination
If run out of possible values for N, go back one more step
Try assign next possible value to I
Classic Puzzles 159

This might sound complex, but it is how our brain works for a similar but much more simpler
puzzles (like 2 or 3 letters). Computers dont mind complex calculations and memorizing all
the steps as long as there are algorithm-turned-into-instructions to follow on. Here is the
pseudocode for the above backtracking algorithm:
Pseudocode

function find_out(letter_index)

if all letters are assigned

check the answer (converting letter to digits to verify the equation)
print out solution if matches
return # a combination of all 8 letters has been tried
end

for each digit (0-9)

if satisfy the constraints and the digit not used
mark the digit has been used
assign a digit to this letter (by index)
find_out(next_letter)
# the above recurive call returns means 8 letters have been checked
# make the digit available for next try
mark the digit not used
end
end

As you can imagine, this will generate a huge number of combinations to check against the
equation. It is going to be slow.
Based on the equation, we can reason out

A = 1, U = 9
Because USSR plus 3-digit number (and another 2-digit) can only make 1????, i.e. A
= 1 and U = 9.
G=0
Based on A = 1 and U = 9, G must be 0 as U(9) carry 1 to AG (10).
Classic Puzzles 160

We could go further, but I think this is good enough. Lets leave the rest to the computer to
figure out.
End cause
The combination satisfy UK + USA + USSR = AGING
Constraints

1. A cannot be 0 (no leading zeroes)

2. U cannot be 0
3. A=1
4. U=9
5. G=0
6. The digit must has not been used to assign to a letter

Hints

Data structure

@letters = ['U', 'K', 'S', 'A', 'R', 'G', 'I', 'N']

@letter_to_digits = {} # hash store the solution
@is_digit_used = {0 => false, 1 => false, 2 => false, 3 => false, 4 => false\
, 5 => false, 6 => false, 7 => false, 8 => false, 9 => false }

@letters is defined as an array, so that we can start trying first letter @letters[0], then
@letters[1], , etc.

@letter_to_digits stores possible combinations, e.g. @letter_to_digits["U"] => 9; @let-

ter_to_digits["A"] => 1;

@is_digit_used is used to ensure that a digit can only be assigned to one letter.

Decode letters to digits

Decode a string to return a number based on the each characters corresponding integer.
For example, decode_letters_to_number("USA", {"U" => 1, "K" => 4, "S" => 3, "A"
=> 2}) returns number 132.
Classic Puzzles 161

def decode_letters_to_number(letter_string, letter_to_digit_lookup)

# ...
end

Check answer
This is to verify whether a possible combination satisfies the equation.

def check_ans()
uk = decode_letters_to_number('UK', letter_to_digit_lookup)
# ...
# print out the solution if uk + usa + ussr == aging
end
Classic Puzzles 162

10.6 More Puzzle Exercises

Here are some more fun puzzles that are great for programming exercises.

Tower of Hanoi

The objective of the game is to move all the disks onto a different pole.

1. Only one disk can be moved at a time.

2. Each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the stacks and placing it on
top of another stack i.e. a disk can only be moved if it is the uppermost disk on a stack.
3. No disk can be placed on top of a smaller disk.

(source: wikipedia)

Knights tour

A knights tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits
every square exactly once.

(source: wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight%27s_tour
Classic Puzzles 163

Eight Queens puzzle

Place eight chess queens on an 8x8 chessboard so that no queens is attacking any of the
others, that is, no two queens share the same row, column and diagonal.

(source: wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_queens_puzzle
11. Web Test Automation
Web Test Automation, or automated functional testing for web applications via the Graphical
User Interface (GUI), is the use of automated test scripts to drive test executions to verify
that the web application meets requirements. To put it simply, during the execution of an
automated test for a website, you see mouse and keyboard actions such as clicking a button
and typing text in a text box in a browser, without human intervention. Those actions were
driven by test scripts.
To effectively develop automated test scripts, mastering programming is a must. Ruby is
regarded as the best language for writing test scripts. In this chapter, we will use Ruby script
to test web applications.

11.1 The best job is not far away

Before we start, lets see an article on Forbes.

The Happiest Jobs In America: software quality assurance

engineer
The happiest job of all isnt kindergarten teacher or dentist. Its software quality assurance
engineer. Professionals with this job title are typically involved in the entire software
development process to ensure the quality of the final product. This can include processes
such as requirements gathering and documentation, source code control, code review,
change management, configuration management, release management, and the actual
testing of the software, explains Matt Miller, chief technology officer at CareerBliss.
With an index score of 4.24, software quality assurance engineers said they are more than
satisfied with the people they work with and the company they work for. Theyre also
fairly content with their daily tasks and bosses.
These professionals typically make between $85,000 and $100,000 a year in salary and are
the gatekeepers for releasing high quality software products, Miller says. Organizations
generally will not allow software to be released until it has been fully tested and approved
by their software quality assurance group, he adds.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/23/the-happiest-jobs-in-america

164
Web Test Automation 165

The happiest job list in USA

http://www.careerbliss.com/facts-and-figures/happiest-and-unhappiest-jobs-17/

The advantages of being software testers for web applications.

Big demand
Now a large percentage of new software development are web applications. There
are also considerable legacy desktop applications will be migrated to web-based.
Comparing to traditional desktop client development, web applications (or as a result
of modern software development practices) require far more frequent releases. As a
result, a lot more testing effort is needed. Furthermore, the emerging requirement of
supporting all leading browsers: IE, Chrome and Firefox also means demanding more
testing resources.
Relatively stable skill set
Some IT professionals left this industry because the technologies change too quickly,
this is particularly true for programmers. I have been working in IT over 18 years,
seeing many technologies come and go. However, the skill set for testing web
applications is relatively stable. While there are advancements in web technologies,
the fundamental and core ones such as HTML, CSS and JavaScripts remain largely the
same.
Transferable skill
The knowledge and experience you gained at company A is directly applicable to
company B, as long as you are testing web applications.
Few possess the skills
We know that there is no degree in software testing, and I never heard of any
universities offering courses in automated testing (This puzzles me. We all know that
software tester is an essential role in software projects). As a result, very few people
possess test automation knowledge.
Web Test Automation 166

A good news for you, the knowledge you gained from doing this books exercises plus
some extra effort (see below) will put you in a position well ahead of your peers, if you
are interested in getting the happiest job in USA.

11.2 Drive Internet Explorer with Watir

Watir (Web Application Testing in Ruby) is a free and open source library for automated
testing web applications in Internet Explorer. As its name suggests, test scripts are actually
Ruby scripts.
Watir, or watir-classic to be precisely, works only on Internet Explorer (up to IE11) on
Windows.

Install Watir

RubyGems is the default package manager for Ruby. Most of Ruby libraries are released in a
format called gem. Here is a command to install Watir gem.

gem install watir

gem install watir-classic

Alternatively, You may download RubyShell, a pre-packaged Ruby for Windows installer,
which contains all common gems required for software testing.

Sample Watir script

https://testwisely.com/testwise/downloads
Web Test Automation 167

require 'watir'

browser = Watir::Browser.new
browser.goto "http://travel.agileway.net"

browser.text_field(:name, "username").set("agileway")
browser.text_field(:name, "password").set("testwise")
browser.button(:value, "Sign in").click

browser.radio(:name => "tripType", :value => "oneway").click

browser.select_list(:name, "fromPort").select("New York")
browser.select_list(:name, "toPort").select("Sydney")
browser.select_list(:id, "departDay").select("04")
browser.select_list(:id, "departMonth").select("March 2012")
browser.button(:value,"Continue").click

browser.text_field(:name, "passengerFirstName").set("Bob")
browser.text_field(:name, "passengerLastName").set("Tester")
browser.button(:value,"Next").click

browser.radio(:name => "card_type", :value => "visa").click

browser.text_field(:name, "card_number").set("4242424242424242")
browser.button(:value, "Pay now").click
sleep 10 # wait for processing to complete
browser.link(:text, "Sign off").click

11.3 Drive Firefox with Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver (also known as Selenium 2) is the most popular testing framework for
web and mobile applications. There is clearly trend that more and more software companies,
such as Facebook, desire Selenium skills from programmers and software test engineers.
Selenium supports all major browsers and tests can be written in many programming
languages and run on Windows, Linux and Macintosh platforms.

Install Selenium WebDriver

Web Test Automation 168

gem install selenium-webdriver

If you use Windows, selenium-webdriver gem is already included RubyShell.

Sample Selenium-WebDriver Script

require 'selenium-webdriver'

browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox)
browser.navigate.to("http://travel.agileway.net")

browser.find_element(:id, "username").send_keys("agileway")
browser.find_element(:id, "password").send_keys("testwise")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Sign in']").click

browser.find_elements(:name => "tripType").each { |elem| elem.click && break\

if elem.attribute("value") == "oneway" && elem.attribute("type") == "radio"\
}

# one way of using select in selenium: slow

select_elem = browser.find_element(:name, "fromPort");
options = select_elem.find_elements(:tag_name, "option");
options.each { |opt| opt.click if opt.text == "New York"}

Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:name, "toPort\
")).select_by(:text, "Sydney")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:id, "departDa\
y")).select_by(:text, "04")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:id, "departMo\
nth")).select_by(:text, "March 2012")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Continue']").click

browser.find_element(:name, "passengerFirstName").send_keys("Wise")
browser.find_element(:name, "passengerLastName").send_keys("Tester")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Next']").click

browser.find_elements(:name => "card_type").each { |elem| elem.click && brea\

k if elem.attribute("value") == "visa" && elem.attribute("type") == "radio" \
Web Test Automation 169

}
browser.find_element(:name, "card_number").send_keys("4000000000000000")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:name, "expiry\
_year")).select_by(:text, "2013")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Pay now']").click

11.4 Drive Chrome with Selenium WebDriver

Selenium requires chomedriver to be installed, and put in the system PATH.

1. Download chromedriver. The current version is 2.21.

2. Add to PATH
Windows
Edit PATH in Environment Variables.
Mac or Linux
cp ~/Downloads/chromedriver /usr/local/bin

Tell Selenium to use Chrome

It is easy, just change :firefox to :chrome in the above script.

browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:chrome)
...

Run the script. You will see it running in Chrome.

11.5 Drive IE with Selenium WebDriver

Like Chrome, Selenium requires extra software to drive IE. It is called Internet Explorer
Driver Server, you can download it from the Selenium site.

Tell Selenium to use IE

https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads
http://www.seleniumhq.org/download/
Web Test Automation 170

browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:ie)
...

11.6 Complete Test with Verification

Web test drivers such as Watir and Selenium WebDriver drive browsers. However, to make
effective use of them for testing, we need put them in a test framework which defines
test structures and provides assertions (performing checks in test scripts after driving the
application to a certain point).
In the context of web testing, typical checks are:

verify certain texts are present

verify page title
verify a link is present
verify a web control is present or hidden

RSpec

RSpec is a popular test framework in Ruby. Standard gem installation (gem install rspec)
or using RubyShell. The below is a complete test script in RSpec.

require 'selenium-webdriver'
require 'rspec'

describe "Book flight" do

before(:all) do
@browser = $browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox)
@browser.navigate.to("http://travel.agileway.net")
end

after(:all) do
@browser.quit
end

it "Book flight with payment" do

Web Test Automation 171

@browser.find_element(:id, "username").send_keys("agileway")
@browser.find_element(:id, "password").send_keys("testwise")
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Sign in']").click
# check whether signed in OK?
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("Signed in!")

@browser.find_elements(:name => "tripType").each { |elem| elem.click && \

break if elem.attribute("value") == "oneway" && elem.attribute("type") == "r\
adio" }

Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:name, "f\
romPort")).select_by(:text, "New York")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:name, "t\
oPort")).select_by(:text, "Sydney")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:id, "dep\
artDay")).select_by(:text, "04")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:id, "dep\
artMonth")).select_by(:text, "March 2012")

@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Continue']").click
@browser.find_element(:name, "passengerFirstName").send_keys("Wise")
@browser.find_element(:name, "passengerLastName").send_keys("Tester")
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Next']").click

@browser.find_element(:xpath, "//input[@name='card_type' and @value='vis\

a']").click
@browser.find_element(:name, "card_number").send_keys("4000000000000000")
select_elem = @browser.find_element(:name, "expiry_year");
options = select_elem.find_elements(:tag_name, "option");
options.each { |opt| opt.click if opt.text == "2013"}
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Pay now']").click

sleep 10
# check receipt info
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("2012-03-04 <b>New York</b> to\
<b>Sydney</b>")
end
Web Test Automation 172

end

Besides the test statements driving the application, it contains two checks:

verify that user signed in OK, after clicking Sign in button

verify that final receipt page (after payment) contains flight details

# ...
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("Signed in!")
# ...
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("2012-03-04 <b>New York</b> to <b>\
Sydney</b>")

11.7 For more on test automation

Obviously, here we have only touched the very basic of test automation for web applications.
The messages I am trying to convey in the chapter:

You can use Ruby to do some real work, or get a promising career.
You understand test scripts now, and probably can write some of your own.

If you are interested in test automation, please check the resources section for more.
12. Beyond This Book
If you look back the time when you started the first exercise, you probably realize that you
have learned a lot. While this book stops here, your learning wont. You have just laid a good
foundation to achieve more with computer, with the power of programming.

12.1 More Ruby

We have covered the fundamentals of Ruby. To know more cool features of Ruby, such as
Blocks, I would highly recommend the book: Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic
Programmers Guide. It is commonly known as The PickAxe because of the pickaxe
illustration on the cover. Ruby programming language was created by Yukihiro Matsumoto
(Matz) in Japan, The PickAxe has helped Ruby to spread outside Japan.

12.2 More exercises

Programming is just like any other skills, more practices will make it better. As computers
are part of our life, if you pay attention, you will find a lot areas that you can apply your
programming skills to. For example, some exercises in this book are from my daughters Math
homework.
Even you cannot think of something now, try redo some exercises by adding variations,
especially those ones that you had troubles with for the first time.

12.3 Automated Testing with Ruby

If you have completed all the exercises, you will have enough programming skills required
for a good automated tester (2012s the happiest job in USA according to this Forbes report,
the second in both 2013 and 2014). As a matter of fact, one of the reasons of writing this book
https://pragprog.com/book/ruby4/programming-ruby-1-9-2-0
http://www.infoq.com/interviews/david-black
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/23/the-happiest-jobs-in-america

173
Beyond This Book 174

is to respond the question I received from the readers of my other book Practical Web Test
Automation: Can you recommend a book on Ruby?
Ruby, in my opinion, is the most suitable script language for writing automated tests. The
over 10 million downloads of Selenium-WebDriver (the most popular web testing library,
used in Facebook and Google) Ruby gem supports my view.

12.4 Web Programming with Ruby on Rails

Many people heard of Ruby the first time from the term Ruby on Rails, a popular web
application framework written in Ruby. Many large web sites running Ruby on Rails include
Hulu, Shopify, Yammer, Scribd and GitHub. Besides large web sites, Ruby on Rails is very
popular in startups.
The word Web in web programming means you also need master web technologies, such
as

HTML
JavaScripts
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Codecademy offers free courses for the above.

Rails Resources:

Book: Agile Web Development with Rails 4 - the definite guide to Ruby on Rails
development.
ScreenCasts: RailsCasts - great Rails tutorial screencast by Ryan Bates.
Online Course: Codecademys Make a Rails App course

Recommended Rails exercise

If you dont have a web project in mind, I suggest implementing a library system (extended
from ex9-4) in Rails. In the ex9-4, this over-simplified library system has three features:
http://www.codecademy.com/
https://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails-4
http://railscasts.com/
http://www.codecademy.com/en/learn/make-a-rails-app/
Beyond This Book 175

Import books into the system

Borrow a book
Return a book

Of course, they need to be rewritten in Rails (not hard to do). Then you can add more features:

Register new member

Register a new book
Member can login (see RailsCasts for episodes on user authentication)
Member can view borrowing history
Library staff send due date reminders
Member can renew

It is common that beginners plan big and rush to coding, end up too complex to handle. The
proper way is to start simple and enhance the system gradually.
Also it is a good idea to write some automated tests for your web application. You might be
surprised that how useful they are.

Web applications developed by me

ClinicWise, a web-based health practice management system.

SiteWise CMS, a content management system (CMS) to build dynamic web sites.
AdminWise, a web application manages administration tasks including a library
system.
https://clinicwise.net/
http://sitewisecms.com/

12.5 Game Programming and Mobile Apps

Comparing to other main-stream programming languages such as Java and C#, Ruby lacks
behind on Graphical User Interface (GUI) support, maybe due to the majority use of Ruby
Beyond This Book 176

are either web application development (Rails) or scripting (automated testing). Having said
that, it is possible to write desktop applications in Ruby. For example, I developed Testwise,
a testing IDE, in Ruby.
Besides web applications, the other main focus of software development is on iOS or Android
apps. RubyMotion is a commercial product (you need to pay after free trial) that lets you
develop cross-platform native apps for iOS, Android and OS X in Ruby.

12.6 Learn another programming language

It is common that a programmer needs to master several programming languages. As I said in

the preface, once you have mastered one programming language, it is easy to learn another. If
you like the format of this book, you may want to get my second book in Learn by examples
series: Learn Swift by Examples.

http://www.rubymotion.com/
https://leanpub.com/learn-swift-programming-by-examples
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell
A quick summary of core Ruby syntax in code examples.

Print out

# print out text

puts "a" + "b"; # => "ab"
puts 1 + 2; # => 3
puts "1" + "2"; # => "12"

# print out without new line after

print "Hi"
print "Bob"
# the screen output will be "HiBob"

# print out joined multiple strings

print "Bye", " John" # => "Bye John"

Variable assignment

total = 1 + 2 + 3; # => total has value: 6

average = total / 3;
puts average; # => 2

## print string with variable

puts "total is " + total.to_s
puts "average is #{average}"

Read user input

177
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 178

input = gets # => type "Hi"

puts input # => "Hi\n"

## normally strip off the new line "\n"

input = gets.chomp # => "Hi"

## read an integer
print "Enter a number"
num = gets.chomp.to_i

Conditional

Two boolean values: true and false

if

if score < 0
score = 0 # no negative score
end

unless

unless score >= 0

score = 0 # no negative score
end

Single line if and unless

puts "Warning: close to limit" if user_count > 10

puts "Warning: close to limit" if user_count <= 10

if, elsif and else

Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 179

if true
puts "OK"
else
puts "Never reach here"
end

a = 10
b = 20
if a > b
puts "a is bigger"
elsif a < b
puts "b is bigger"
else
puts "a,b the same"
end

Case and When

score = 70

result = case score

when 0..60
"Fail"
when 61..70
"Pass"
when 71..95
"Pass with Distinction"
when 96, 97, 98, 99
"Distinction"
when 100
"High Distinction"
else
"Invalid Score"
end
puts result # => Pass

Looping

1. while loop
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 180

count = 0
while count < 10
count = count + 1
print count, " "
end
# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2. for loop

for i in 1..9
print i, " "
end
# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3. until loop

count = 1
until count >= 5
print count, " "
count +=1
end
# 1 2 3 4

4. times loop

number = 2
3.times do
number = number * number
end
# 3 calculations: 2 * 2, 4 * 4, 16 * 16
puts number # => 256

Skip to next loop: next

Ignore this remaining statements in the current loop, start the next loop.
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 181

(1..5).each do |num|
puts "Checking #{num} ..."
next if num % 2 != 0 # Skip odd numbers
puts "#{num} is an even number."
end

Output:

Checking 1 ...
Checking 2 ...
2 is an even number.
Checking 3 ...
Checking 4 ...
4 is an even number.
Checking 5 ...

Exit a loop: break

while input = gets.chomp

puts input
if input == "exit"
break
end
end

Infinite loop

while true
# the code within will be running again and again
# you shall really add an exit condition
end

Array
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 182

score_list = [20, 10, 30, 50]

score_list.size # => 4
score_list.reverse # => [50, 30, 10, 20]
score_list.sort # => [10,20,30,50], score_list itself not changed
puts score_list # => [20, 10, 30, 50]
score_list.sort! ## change itself
puts score_list # => [10, 20, 30, 50]

Accessing array element

most_spoken_langs = ["Chinese", "Spanish", "English", "Hindi", "Arabic"]

most_spoken_langs[0] # => "Chinese", indexing starts 0
most_spoken_langs[2] # => "English"
most_spoken_langs[-1] # => "Arabic", last one
most_spoken_langs[-2] # => "Hindi"
most_spoken_langs.include?("Spanish") # => true
most_spoken_langs.include?("Italian") # => false

Add and remove array elements

score_list = [20, 10, 30, 50]

score_list.delete(30) # score_list will be [[20, 10, 50]
score_list << 90
score_list << 80
puts score_list # => [20, 10, 50, 90, 80]

Iterate an array

[20, 10, 30].each do |elem|

puts "Square of #{elem} is #{elem * elem}"
end

Output:
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 183

Square of 20 is 400
Square of 10 is 100
Square of 30 is 900

Hash

Initialize, add and delete Hash elements

us_states = {"CA" => "California", "NY" => "New York", "TX" => "Texas"}
us_states["FL"] = "Florida"
us_states.size # => 4
us_states.delete("NY")
puts us_states.inspect #=> {"CA"=>"California","TX"=>"Texas","FL"=>"Florida"}

Iterate a Hash

us_states.each { |key, value|

puts "#{value}'s abbreviation is " + key
}

Output:

California's abbreviation is CA
Texas's abbreviation is TX
Florida's abbreviation is FL

Method

def square(num)
num * num # => equal to return num * num
end

puts square(2) # => 4

puts square(9) # => 81

Method arguments with default values

Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 184

def exponent(num, power = 2)

num ** power ## exponential calculation
end

exponent(5) # => 25
exponent(5, 3) # => 125

Scope

@c = 1 # @instance variable, scope of file

def add(a, b)
c = a + b # local scope of function
@c = c # set instance variable's value
puts "inside c = #{c}"
end

c = 100; # local scope of outside, different from the c in add()

add(1, 2)
puts "outside c = #{c}"
puts "instance variable @c = #{@c}"

Output:

inside c = 3
outside c = 100
instance variable @c = 3

Nested Loop
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 185

# times table
for i in 1..9 do
for j in 1..9 do
puts "#{i}x#{j} = #{i*j}"
end
end

Class

class Bird
def fly
puts "I am flying"
end
end

class Seagull < Bird

end

class Parrot < Bird

def speak
puts "if someone teaches me"
end
end

seagull = Seagull.new
seagull.fly # => "I am flying"

parrot = Parrot.new
parrot.fly # => "I am flying"
parrot.speak # => "if someone teaches me"

class Ostrich < Bird

def fly
puts "I rather run"
end
end

ostrich = Ostrich.new
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 186

ostrich.fly #=> "I rather run"

seagull.speak # NoMethodError: undefined method `speak' for #<Seagull:xxx>

Module and Mixin

module Logging

def log(message)
puts "[#{Time.now}] [#{self.class.name}] #{message}"
end

end

class A
include Logging
end

class B
include Logging
end

class C
end

a = A.new
b = B.new
c = C.new

a.log("in A") # => [2014-11-08 16:07:32 +1000] [A] in A

b.log("in A") # => [2014-11-08 16:07:32 +1000] [B] in B
c.log("in C") # => undefined method `log' for #<C:0x007fdbfa075480> (NoMetho\
dError)

File I/O

Read file
Appendix 1 Ruby in Nutshell 187

file_path = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "score.txt")

file_content = File.read(file_path)

Write to file

# to append existing file, use 'a' instead of 'w'

fio = File.open("c:/tmp/output.txt", "w")
fio.puts("string to write into file")
fio.close

Date

require 'date' # need to load first

# assume today is 2014-11-25
Date.today.to_s # => "2014-11-07"
Date.today.class # => Date
Date.today.year = 2014
Date.today.month = 11
Date.today.day = 25

Date.parse("2014-01-29") # => a date object

Appendix 2 Solutions
Chapter 2

2.1 Print out Triangle

Write a program to print out *s like the triangle shape below:

*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*********
**********

Solution

10.times do |count|
# count starts with 0 then 1, 2, 3 ...
puts "*" * (count + 1)
end

Rubys times do can optionally pass the looping index to the code within the block, the
looping index starts with 0.

10.times do |looping_index|
# ...
end

2.2 Print out a half diamond

Write a program to print out *s as a right side of diamond shape (still a triangle).

188
Appendix 2 Solutions 189

*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*******
******
*****
****
***
**
*

Solution

15.times do |row|
# row starting with 0
if row < 8
star_count = row + 1
else
star_count = (15 - row)
end
puts '*' * star_count
end

2.3 Print out diamond shape

Print 7 rows of * in a diamond shape as below:

Appendix 2 Solutions 190

*
***
*****
*******
*****
***
*

Solution

15.times do |row|
if row < 8
star_count = row * 2 + 1
space_count = 8 - row
else
star_count = (15 - row) * 2 - 1
space_count = row - 6
end
puts ' ' * space_count + '*' * star_count
end

2.4 Print big diamond, name your size

Ask the user for the size of diamond (by the number for total rows) and then print out a *
diamond.

Enter the maximum number of rows (odd number): 9

*
***
*****
*******
*********
*******
*****
***
*

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 191

print "Enter the maximum number of rows (odd number):"

size = gets.chomp.to_i
space = " "
space_count = size / 2 + 1 # initial space count for first row
middle_row = size / 2 + 1
size.times do |row|
if row < middle_row
space_count -= 1
star_count = row * 2 + 1
else
space_count += 1
star_count = (size - 1 - row) * 2 + 1
end
print space * space_count
puts '*' * star_count
end

Some minor enhancements over Courtneys:

puts will start a new line, so I used print to print out the static text for asking users
input.
introduce variable middle_row to improve code readability. In fact, Courtney got
failure initially because did not update the if row < ... condition correctly.
move print space * space_count out of if statements (duplication)

Chapter 3

3.1 Simple Add Calculator

A simple calculator adds two integer numbers (up to 99) from user inputs, and print out the
sum.
Appendix 2 Solutions 192

I am an adding machine, and I am good at it.

Enter first number: (type 1, press Enter)
Enter second number: (type 99, press Enter)
Thinking ...
Got it, the answer is: 100

Solution

puts "I am an Adding Machine and I am good at it"

puts "Enter first number:"
num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter second number:"
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Thinking..."
answer = num1 + num2
puts "Got it, the answer is: #{answer}"

3.2 Addition Quiz

Write a program to ask a user for 10 single digit addition questions, give feedback on the
users response and finally print out the score.

1 + 1 = (enter 2)
Correct.
2 + 7 = (enter 8)
Wrong!
...
6 + 3 =

Your score: 8/10

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 193

count = 0
10.times do
num1 = rand(10)
num2 = rand(10)
print "#{num1} + #{num2} ="
answer = num1 + num2
input = gets.chomp.to_i
if answer == input
puts "Correct!"
count += 1
else
puts "Wrong!"
end
end
puts "Your score is #{count}/10"

Courtney forgot the You score: part, which she added later.

3.3 Subtraction Quiz

Write a program to ask a user for 10 single digit subtraction questions, give feedback on the
users response and finally print out the score.

9 - 1 = (enter 8)
Correct.
7 - 2 = (enter 8)
Wrong!
...
Your score: 8/10

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 194

count = 0
10.times do
num1 = rand(10)
num2 = rand(10)
if num1 > num2
print "#{num1} - #{num2} = "
answer = num1 - num2
else
print "#{num2} - #{num1} = "
answer = num2 - num1
end
input = gets.chomp.to_i
if answer == input
puts "Correct!"
count = count += 1
else
puts "Wrong!"
end
end
puts "Your score is #{count}/10"

3.4 Number Guessing Game

The computer has a secret number (0 to 9), the program asks the user to enter a guess and give
feedback such as too big or too small. The program ends when a correct answer is entered.

I have a secret number (0 - 9), Can you guess it?

=> (you type 9)
Too big!
=> (you type 4)
Too Small!
=> (you type 5)
Correct! You guessed 3 times.

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 195

puts "I have a secret number (0-9) Can you guess it?"
count = 0
the_secret_number = rand(10)
while input = gets.chomp.to_i
count += 1
if input > the_secret_number
puts "TOO BIG"
elsif input < the_secret_number
puts "too small"
else
puts "CORRECT"
break
end
end
puts "The number is : #{the_secret_number}. and you guessed #{count} times!!"

Chapter 4

4.1 Sort Children Names

Ask a list of names and then output them in alphabetical order. The program ends when the
user enters 0.

Enter child names in class: (0 to finish):

Dominic
Courtney
Anna
Angela
Ella
Toby
Emma
0

Kids in order:
Angela, Anna, Courtney, Dominic, Ella, Emma, Toby

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 196

array = []
input = nil
puts "Enter child names in class: (0 to finish)"
until input == "0"
input = gets.chomp
if input != "0"
array << input
end
end
puts "Kids in order:"
puts array.sort.join(", ")

4.2 Get the character from given alphabetical position

Ask user to enter a number between 1 to 26, the program tells the character at the alphabetical
position. The program ends when the user enters 0.

I know the alphabet very well, enter the alphabetical order number (integer)\
and I will tell you the corresponding letter, 0 to quit:
1 (user enter)
is 'A'
5 (user enter)
is 'E'
0
Bye!

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 197

array = ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N\
", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z"]
puts "I know the alphabet very well, enter the alphabetical order number (in\
teger) and I will tell you the corresponding letter, 0 to quit:"

while true
input = gets.chomp.to_i
if input == 0
break
end
n = input - 1
puts array[n]
end

The above use while infinite loop, you may also use until loop as below:

until (input = gets.chomp.to_i) == 0

n = input - 1
puts array[n]
end

4.3 Calculate Average

Ask the user to enter a set of student scores (non-negative) integers and then calculate the
average. The program ends when the user enters -1.
Difficulty: Easy

Enter scores: (enter -1 to finish):

87
94
100
56
74
67
75
88
-1

Average score : 80
Appendix 2 Solutions 198

Solution

array = []
count = 0
puts "Enter scores: "
while true
input = gets.chomp.to_i
break if input == -1

array << input

count += 1
end
the_sum = array.inject{|sum,x| sum + x }
average = the_sum / count
puts "Average score: #{average}"

4.4 What makes 100% in life?

If we represent the alphabet numerically by identifying sequence of letters (A,B,C,,X,Y,Z)

with the percentages (1%,2%,3%,,24%,25%,26%). A sum of each characters value in a word
is the meaning to life percentage. Then
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K = (8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11)% = 98%
Ask user to enter an English word (or string) and calculate its meaning to life percentage.

Enter your word (in capital): HARDWORK

The value of meaning to life: 98%

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 199

alpha_value_lookups = {}
%w(A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z).each_with_index do |\
ch, idx|
alpha_value_lookups[ch] = idx + 1
end
print "Enter word in capitals: "
input = gets.chomp

the_value = 0
input.split("").each do |character|
the_value += alpha_value_lookups[character]
end

puts "The value of meaning to life: #{the_value}%"

I constructed the hash look-up from an alphabetical array. There are other ways too. Here I
will show you three things

initialize an array using %w(STRING1 STRING2 ...)

relationship and difference between an array and a hash
each_with_index to pass loop indexing (starting from 0) to the block code within the
loop

Courtney used the array to sum the value, which is not necessary.

Chapter 5

5.1 Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter

Julie, an Australian, is going to USA, where different Fahrenheit temperature scales are used.
Here is the Fahrenheit to Celsius formula:

Can you write a program for Julie to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius? The result is round to 2
digits after the decimal point.
Appendix 2 Solutions 200

Enter temperature in Fahrenheit: 100.5

In Celsius: 38.06

Solution

print "Enter temperature in Fahrenheit: "

input = gets.chomp.to_f
# puts "You entered #{input}"
celsius = (input - 32) * 5 / 9.0
print "In Celsius: "
puts celsius.round(2)

5.2 Personal Income Tax Calculator

Here are Australian personal income tax rates for 2013-14.

Taxable income Tax on this income

0 $18,200 Nil
$18,201 $37,000 19c for each $1 over $18,200
$37,001 $80,000 $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 $180,000 $17,547 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 and over $54,547 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000

Write a program to calculate how much tax a person needs to pay based on his/her annual
salary?

Enter your annual income: 80000

Your personal income tax amount: $17547

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 201

puts "Enter your annual income: "

income = gets.chomp.to_f

if income > 0 && income <= 18200

puts "No tax"
elsif income > 18201 && income <= 37000
tax = (income - 18200) * 0.19
elsif income > 37001 && income <= 80000
tax = (income - 37000) * 0.325 + 3572
elsif income > 80001 && income <= 180000
tax = (income - 80000) * 0.37 + 17547
else
tax = (income - 180000) * 0.45 + 54547
end
puts "Your personal income tax amount: $#{tax}"

Using case statement.

case income
when 0..18200
puts "No tax"
when 18201..37000
tax = (income - 18200) * 0.19
when 37001..80000
tax = (income - 37000) * 0.325 + 3572
when 37001..80000
tax = (income - 80000) * 0.37 + 17547
else
tax = (income - 180000) * 0.45 + 54547
end

5.3 Word count

Emily wrote a book review, but she is not sure whether it meets the required word count.
Assuming Emilys article is saved in a string, Can you write a program to count the number
of words?
Appendix 2 Solutions 202

(assuming the text is "'Practical Web Test Automation' book is great. The en\
d." and set in the code)
The text has 9 words.

Solution

str = 'Practical Web Test Automation' book is great. The end.'

puts "The text has #{str.split(' ').size} words"

5.4 Generate Lotto Numbers

Write a program to generate a Lotto number. Lotto numbers are between 1 and 49, 6 numbers
are a group.

Your winning lotto numbers are [23, 34, 12, 6, 7, 49], good luck!

Solution

count = 0
array = []
until count == 6
lotto_number = rand(49)
lotto_number += 1
if array.include?(lotto_number)
# puts "ALREADY HAS #{lotto_number}"
next
else
array << lotto_number
count += 1
end
end
puts "Your winning lotto numbers are #{array}, good luck!"

5.5 Number sorting

Ask the user to input 10 numbers, then sort them in order.

Appendix 2 Solutions 203

Please enter 10 numbers:

10
8
7
3
4
5
9
1
2
6

The numbers in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Solution

array = [10, 8, 7, 3, 4, 5, 9, 1, 2, 6]
array.each_with_index do |num, idx|
# puts "num = #{num}"
# puts "idx = #{idx}"

# comparing No.idx with remaining ones

(idx+1..array.size() - 1).each do |idx2|
if array[idx] > array[idx2]
# swap
array[idx], array[idx2] = array[idx2], array[idx]
end
end
end
puts "The numbers in order: #{array.join(', ')}"

Chapter 6

6.1 Finding Divisors

Write a program to list all divisors of a given number (user entered).

Appendix 2 Solutions 204

Enter a number: (108)

The divisors of 108: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 27, 36, 54, 108

Solution

check = nil
array = []
print "Enter a number: "
input = gets.chomp.to_i
(1..input).each do |x|
check = input % x
if check == 0
array << x
end
end
puts "The divisors of #{input}: #{array.join(", ")}"

6.2 Finding the Highest Common Factor

Write a program to ask the user to enter two non-negative integers and then find the highest
common factor (HCF).

Enter the first number: (8)

Enter the second number: (12)
The HCF of 8 and 12 is: 4

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 205

divisors_list_1 = []
divisors_list_2 = []
puts "Enter first number: "
num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
(1..num1).each do |x|
check = num1 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_1 << x
end
end
puts "Enter second number: "
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
(1..num2).each do |x|
check = num2 % x
if check == 0
divisors_list_2 << x
end
end

d1sorted = divisors_list_1.sort.reverse
d1sorted.each do |elem|
# puts "elem = #{elem}"
if divisors_list_2.include?(elem)
puts "The HCF is #{elem}"
break
end
end

6.3 Finding the Least Common Multiple (LCM)

Least (also sometimes called Lowest) common multiple is the smallest (non-zero) number
that is a multiple of two or more examples. For example, 12 is the LCM of 6 and 4, as 12 = 6
x 2 and 12 = 3 x 4. 24 is a common multiple of 4 and 6, but is not the lowest.
Appendix 2 Solutions 206

Enter the first number: (6)

Enter the second number: (4)
The LCM for 6 and 12 is: 12
Calculation time: 0.0001 seconds

Solution

puts "Enter the first number: "

num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter the second number:"
num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
if num1 > num2
check = num1
else
check = num2
end
puts "check = #{check}"
start_time = Time.now
(check..num1 * num2).step(check) do |n|
# puts "n % num1 = #{n % num1}"
# puts "n % num2 = #{n % num2}"
if n % num1 == 0 && n % num2 == 0
puts "The LCM for #{num1} and #{num2} is #{n}"
break
end
end
puts "Calculation took #{Time.now - start_time} seconds"

6.4 Finding Prime Numbers

Find prime numbers between 1 and 20.

Prime numbers (up to 20) are : 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 207

array = []
(2..20).each do |num|
# check one number is a prime number or not
flag = true
(2..num - 1).each do |x| # trying to check each possible divisor
if num % x == 0
flag = false # mark this has divisor
break # no point to check more - composite, moves on to next
end
end
if flag == true # the number has no divisors
array << num # add to prime number list
end
end
puts "Prime numbers (up to 20) are : #{array.join(', ')}"

6.5 Fibonacci sequence

Start with a pair of rabbits (one male and one female) born on January 1. Assume that all
months are of equal length and that :

1. rabbits begin to produce young two months after their own birth;
2. after reaching the age of two months, each pair produces a mixed pair, (one male, one
female), and then another mixed pair each month thereafter; and
3. no rabbit dies.

How many pairs will there be in the end of each month of first year?

The number of rabbit pairs are:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 208

array = [1, 1]
num1 = 1
num2 = 1
10.times do
next_number = num1 + num2
array << next_number
num1 = num2
num2 = next_number
end
puts "The number of rabbit pairs are: #{array.join(', ')}"

6.6 Consecutive Sums

Some natural numbers can be written as a sum of consecutive natural numbers. For example,
10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Some can be written in more than a way. For example, 9 = 2 + 3 + 4 and 9 =
4 + 5. Now can you write a program to output all possible ways for a given natural number.

Enter a number: 9
9 = 2 + 3 + 4
9 = 4 + 5

Solution

print "Enter a number: "

x = gets.chomp.to_i
y = (x + 1) / 2
(1..y-1).each do |starting_number|
# puts "starting num = #{starting_number}"
(starting_number..y).each do |j|
# puts "j = #{j}"
sum = (starting_number..j).to_a.inject(0){|sum, item| sum + item}
if sum == x
puts "#{x} = #{(starting_number..j).to_a.join(' + ')}"
end
end
end
Appendix 2 Solutions 209

Chapter 7

7.1 Finding the Highest Common Factor (using method)

Write a program to ask the user to enter two non-negative integers and then find the highest
common factor (HCF) of them. The program must define a method to return divisors of a
number.

Enter the first number: (8)

Enter the second number: (12)
The HCF of 8 and 12 is: 4

Solution

def get_divisors(num)
array = []
(1..num).each do |x|
check = num % x
if check == 0
array << x
end
end
return array
end

puts "Enter first number: "

num1 = gets.chomp.to_i
divisors_list_1 = get_divisors(num1)

puts "Enter second number: "

num2 = gets.chomp.to_i
divisors_list_2 = get_divisors(num2)

d1sorted = divisors_list_1.sort.reverse
d1sorted.each do |elem|
if divisors_list_2.include?(elem)
puts "The HCF is #{elem}"
Appendix 2 Solutions 210

break
end
end

7.2 Generate Lotto Numbers (using a method)

Write a program to generate a Lotto number. Lotto numbers are between 1 and 49, 6 numbers
are a group. This time, define a method that returns a valid lotto number.

Your winning lotto numbers are [23, 34, 12, 6, 7, 49], good luck!

Solution

def get_next_valid_lotto_number(existing_lotto_numbers)
new_lotto_number = rand(49)
while existing_lotto_numbers.include?(new_lotto_number)
new_lotto_number = rand(49)
end
return new_lotto_number
end

lotto_numbers = []
6.times do
new_valid_number = get_next_valid_lotto_number(lotto_numbers)
lotto_numbers << new_valid_number
end

puts "Your winning lotto numbers are #{lotto_numbers.inspect}, good luck!"

7.3 Finding the LCM for multiple numbers (using method)

Write a program to get the lowest number that is dividable by 1, 2, 3, 4, , 14 and 15.

The lowest number that is dividable by 1 to 15 is: 360360

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 211

# a function returns lcm for a and b

def lcm(a, b)
(a..a*b).each do |n|
if n % a == 0 && n % b == 0
# puts "n = #{n}"
return n
next
end # end of if
end # end of loop
end

# trying out functions

# m = lcm(1, 2)
# m = lcm(m, 3)

m = 1
(2..15).each do |w|
m = lcm(m, w)
# puts "The LCM for up to #{w} is #{m}"
end
puts "The lowest number that is dividable by 1 to 15 is: #{m}"

Chapter 8

8.1 Calculate average score

Write a program that reads the contents of a text file containing scores of a class (0-100, one
each line) and calculates the average score.
The content of the text file looks like this:

84
78
...
87

The calculated average score is rounded to one decimal point.

Appendix 2 Solutions 212

> ruby calc_average.rb

The average score is 79.8

Solution

file = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "score.txt")

file_content = File.read(file)

array = []
file_content.split("\n").each do |line|
array << line.to_i
end

the_sum = array.inject{|sum,x| sum + x }

the_average = the_sum * 1.0 / array.size
the_average = the_average.round(1)
puts "Average score is #{the_average}"

8.2 Count words and lines in a text file

Write a program that reads the contents of a file and counts the number of words and lines
in that file.

ruby count_words_and_lines.rb file.txt

file.txt contains 126 words in 13 lines

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 213

first_command_line_argument = ARGV[0]

input_file_path = File.join(".", first_command_line_argument)

input_file_full_path = File.expand_path(input_file_path)

file_content = File.read(input_file_full_path)

word_count = file_content.split.size
line_count = file_content.split("\n").size

puts "#{first_command_line_argument} contains #{word_count} words in #{line_\

count} lines"

8.3 Mail merge birthday invitation cards

Jessica is planning to invite her friends to her 12-year-old birthday party. Instead of
writing individual invitations, she wants to print them out from computer. Instead creating
documents one by one, she wants to generate a letter document (a text file) using the template
below:

Dear {{first_name}},

I am celebrating my 12th Birthday on the 1st of April!

Come celebrate with me!

Where: 42 Greed-Island Street, Yorkshin City

When: 2PM to 5PM
RSVP: 24th March (0400-000-000 or [email protected])

Hope to see you there,

Jessica.

Her friends: Pokkle, Angela, Tonpa, Toby, Biscuit, Mito, Kate, Renee, Chloe, Kelly and Melody.
Write a program to help Jessica to generate multiple invitation cards in text files such as
pokkle_invitation.txt and angela_invitation.txt.

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 214

guest_list = ["Pokkle", "Angela", "Tonpa", "Toby", "Biscuit", "Mito", "Kate"\

, "Renee", "Chloe", "Kelly", "Melody"]

invitation = "Dear {{first_name}},

I am celebrating my 12th Birthday on the 1st of April!

Come celebrate with me!

Where: 42 Greed-Island Street, Yorkshin City

When: 2PM to 5PM
RSVP: 24th of March (0400-000-000 or [email protected])

Hope to see you there,

Jessica."

guest_list.each do |name|
named_invitation = invitation.gsub("{{first_name}}", name)
puts named_invitation
File.open("C:\\Users\\you\\rubycode\\#{name.downcase}_invitation.txt", "w"\
).write(named_invitation)
end

8.4 Rename files

Write a program to rename the following files in a directory:

to
Appendix 2 Solutions 215

so that the files are always shown in alphabetical order and without spaces. (the directory
with the above sample files can be found at sources/files/book_dir)

Solution

require 'fileutils'
directory = File.expand_path( File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "bo\
ok_dir"))

Dir.foreach(directory) do |item|
next if item == '.' or item == '..'
# puts item
if item =~ /chapter\s(\d+)(.*)/
sequence = $1
new_sequence = $1.rjust(2, "0")
new_filename = "chapter_" + new_sequence + $2
# puts new_filename
FileUtils.mv(File.join(directory, item), File.join(directory, new_filena\
me))
end
end

8.5 Currency exchange with life quoting

Write a currency conversion program that converts Australian Dollars to Japanese Yen. Use
a live currency change rate service (requires Internet Connection) to ensure the accuracy.
Appendix 2 Solutions 216

Enter the amount of Australian dollars: 598

=> 56986.35

Solution

require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'csv'

yahoo_exchange_rate_live_url = "http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.c\
sv?s=AUDJPY=X&f=sl1d1t1ba&e=.csv"

begin
csv_data = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse(yahoo_exchange_rate_live_url))
# puts csv_data
rescue => e
puts "Unable to connect to Yahoo Finance, Error: '#{e}'"
exit(-1)
end

csv = CSV.parse(csv_data) # CSV.

csv_first_row = csv.shift
exchange_rate = csv_first_row[1].to_f

print "Enter the amount of Australian dollars: "

aud_amount = gets.chomp.to_f
jpy_amount = (aud_amount * exchange_rate).round(2)
puts "=> #{jpy_amount}"

8.6 Send individual thank you emails

Jessica had a good birthday party and received gifts from friends. She now is going to send
each of them a thank you email. Instead of sending one by one, she wrote a program to send
emails of each of her friends by running a single command.
Her thank you email looks like this:
Appendix 2 Solutions 217

Dear Angela,

Thank you for coming to my 12th party, I really like the gift you gave me: C\
at Statue, thank you very much!

Jessica

And this is a list of people (with email) and gifts she received.

Pokkle ([email protected]): Bow and Arrows

Angela ([email protected]): Cat Statue
Tonpa ([email protected]): Juice Machine
Toby ([email protected]): Necklace
Biscuit ([email protected]): Blue Jewel
Mito ([email protected]): Cooking Book
Kate ([email protected]): Whale Poster
Renee ([email protected]): Camera
Chloe ([email protected]): Pencil Case
Kelly ([email protected]): Rabbit Ears
Melody ([email protected]): CD

How did Jessica do it?

Solution

test_mode = true

my_email = "[email protected]" # change to yours

guest_list = [
{:first_name => "Pokkle", :email => "[email protected]", :gift => "Bow and\
Arrows"},
{:first_name => "Angela", :email => "[email protected]", :gift => "Cat St\
atue"},
# ...
]
Appendix 2 Solutions 218

thank_you_template = "Dear {{first_name}},

Thank you for coming to my 12th party, I really like the gift you gave me: {\
{gift}}, thank you very much!

Jessica"

require 'mail'

options = {
:enable_starttls_auto => true,
:address => 'smtp.gmail.com',
:port => 587,
:authentication => 'plain',
:user_name => '[email protected]',
:password => 'secret'
}

Mail.defaults do
delivery_method :smtp, options
end

guest_list.each do |entry|
content = thank_you_template.gsub("{{first_name}}", entry[:first_name]).gs\
ub("{{gift}}", entry[:gift])

puts content
Mail.deliver do
from my_email
to test_mode ? "me+#{entry[:first_name]}@gmail.com" : entry[:email]
subject 'Thank you for your gift'
body content
end
end
Appendix 2 Solutions 219

Chapter 9

9.1 Calculator

Write a Calculator class which has two functions:

Add two numbers

Subtract two numbers

puts calc.add(2, 3) # => 5

puts calc.minus(17, calc.add(2, 3) ) # => 12

Solution

class Calculator
def add(a, b)
return a + b
end

def minus(a, b)
return a - b
end
end

calc = Calculator.new
puts calc.add(2, 3)
puts calc.minus(17, calc.add(2, 3) )

9.2 Age of Teacher and Students

A school consists of teachers and students, and students are grouped by grades. Write a
program to calculate

a teachers age
the average age of teachers
the average age of Grade 10 student
Appendix 2 Solutions 220

teacher_1 = Teacher.new("James Bond", "1968-04-03") # name, birthday

teacher_2 = Teacher.new("Michael Zasky", "1978-01-02")

students = []
students << Student.new("John Sully", "1999-10-03", 10) # 10 is grade
students << Student.new("Michael Page", "1999-05-07", 11)
students << Student.new("Anna Boyle", "1998-12-03", 10)
students << Student.new("Dominic Chan", "1999-09-10", 10)

Output:

Teacher 'James Bond' age: 46

Average Teacher age: 41.0
The number of Grade 10 students: 3
Average Grade 10 students age: 15.0

Solution

require 'date'

class Person
attr_accessor :name, :birth_date, :gender

def initialize(name, b_date)

@name = name
@birth_date = Date.parse(b_date)
end

def age
if self.birth_date
tmp_year = Date.today.year - self.birth_date.year
tmp_month = Date.today.month - self.birth_date.month
tmp_day = Date.today.day - self.birth_date.day
return tmp_year - 1 if (tmp_month < 0) || (tmp_month == 0 && tmp_day\
< 0)
return tmp_year
else
Appendix 2 Solutions 221

nil
end
end

end

class Teacher < Person

end

class Student < Person

attr_accessor :grade

def initialize(name, b_date, grade)

super(name, b_date)
@grade = grade
end

end

teacher_1 = Teacher.new("James Bond", "1968-10-23")

teacher_2 = Teacher.new("Michael Zasky", "1978-01-02")
puts "Teacher '#{teacher_1.name}' age: #{teacher_1.age}" # =>
avg_teacher_age = [teacher_1, teacher_2].collect{|y| y.age }.inject(0.0) { |\
result, el| result + el } / 2
puts "Average Teacher age: #{avg_teacher_age}"

students = []
students << Student.new("John Sully", "1999-10-23", 10)
students << Student.new("Michael Page", "1999-10-23", 11)
students << Student.new("Anna Boyle", "1998-12-03", 10)
students << Student.new("Dominic Chan", "1999-10-23", 10)

grade_10_students = students.select{|x| x.grade == 10}

puts "The number of Grade 10 students: #{grade_10_students.size}"
average_grade_10_age = grade_10_students.collect{|y| y.age }.inject(0.0) { |\
result, el| result + el } / grade_10_students.size
puts "Average Grade 10 students age: #{average_grade_10_age.round(2)}"
Appendix 2 Solutions 222

9.3 Calculate Sales Tax

The sales tax in Australia is called Goods and services tax (GST) of 10%, which is applied
to most products and services. For example, medical services such as physiotherapy is GST-
free, however GST applies to products sold at clinics. All business must show GST-inclusive
prices. For example, for a $10 meal, $9.09 is net amount and $0.91 sales tax.
Complete the program below to calculate the net amount and sales tax of product and
services.

# ... define Class Goods and ServiceItem

form_roller = Goods.new("Form Roller", 49.95)

service_1 = ServiceItem.new("Initial Consultation", 120.0)
service_2 = ServiceItem.new("Subsequent Consultation", 80.0)

# ... statements to print out product and services' net amount and sale tax

Output:

Form Roller Net Amount: 45.41, GST: 4.54

Initial Consultation Net Amount: 120.0, GST: 0.0
Subsequent Consultation Net Amount: 80.0, GST: 0.0

Solution

module GSTCalc
GST_RATE = 10.0

def net_amount
if @sales_tax_applicable
(@amount / (100.0 + GST_RATE) * 100.0).round(2)
else
return @amount
end
end

def gst
Appendix 2 Solutions 223

if @sales_tax_applicable
tax = (@amount - self.net_amount).round(2)
else
return 0.0
end
end
alias tax gst

end

class ServiceItem
include GSTCalc

attr_accessor :name, :amount, :sales_tax_applicable

def self.gst_free?; return false; end

def initialize(name, amount)

self.name = name
self.amount = amount
self.sales_tax_applicable = false # => default no sales tax
end

end

class Goods
include GSTCalc

attr_accessor :name, :amount, :sales_tax_applicable

def initialize(name, amount)

self.name = name
self.amount = amount
self.sales_tax_applicable = true # => default has sales tax
end
end

form_roller = Goods.new("Form Roller", 49.95)

Appendix 2 Solutions 224

puts "#{form_roller.name} Net Amount: #{form_roller.net_amount}, GST: #{form\

_roller.gst}"

service_1 = ServiceItem.new("Initial Consultation", 120.0)

service_2 = ServiceItem.new("Subsequent Consultation", 80.0)
puts "#{service_1.name} Net Amount: #{service_1.net_amount}, GST: #{service_\
1.gst}"
puts "#{service_2.name} Net Amount: #{service_2.net_amount}, GST: #{service_\
2.gst}"

9.4 Library System

Implement a simplified library system. Initially, the librarian can import book records into
the system via a CSV file. Members of the library can borrow and return books.

Library.import_books(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "books.csv"\

))
Library.book_count # => 10

The format of CSV file:

TITLE, AUTHOR
The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

Here is an example use of the library system:

john = Member.new("John Sully", "1001")

mike = Member.new("Mike Zasky", "1002")

book = Library.find_by_title("Practical Web Test Automation")

Library.borrow(john, book)
# Output "OK"
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output: The book 'Practical Web Test Automation' is not available!
Library.return(book)
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output "OK"
Appendix 2 Solutions 225

Solution

class Library
@@books = []
@@members = []
@@rentals = []

def self.import_books(csv_file)
require 'csv'
CSV.foreach(csv_file) do |row|
next if row[0] == 'TITLE'
a_book = Book.new
a_book.title = row[0]
a_book.author = row[1]
a_book.status = "available"
@@books << a_book
end
end

def self.find_by_title(book_title)
the_book = @@books.select{|x| x.title == book_title }.first
if the_book.nil?
puts "Book #{book_title} not found"
end
return the_book
end

def self.book_count
@@books.size
end

def self.rental_history
@@rentals
end

def self.borrow(member, book)

if book.status == "available"
@@rentals << Rental.new(member, book)
Appendix 2 Solutions 226

book.status = "checked out"

puts "OK"
else
puts "The book '#{book.title}' is not available!"
end
end

def self.return(book)
the_rental = @@rentals.select{|x| x.is_active && x.book == book}.first
book.status = "available"
the_rental.finish
end
end

class Book
attr_accessor :title, :author, :status

end

class Member
attr_accessor :name, :member_id

def initialize(name, member_id)

@name = name
@member_id = member_id
end

end

class Rental
attr_accessor :member, :book
attr_accessor :is_active

def initialize(member, book)

@member = member
@book = book
@is_active = true
end
Appendix 2 Solutions 227

def finish
@is_active = false
end
end

Library.import_books(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "files", "books.csv"))

Library.book_count # => 10

john = Member.new("John Sully", "1001")

mike = Member.new("Mike Zasky", "1002")

book = Library.find_by_title("Practical Web Test Automation")

Library.borrow(john, book)
# Output "OK"
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output: The book 'Practical Web Test Automation' is not available!
Library.return(book)
Library.borrow(mike, book)
# Output "OK"

9.5 Sunflower vs Zombies Simulation

This is a simplified simulation of the famous Plants vs Zombies Game. A sunflower is on

the left of the field, zombies come towards the flower (to eat it) one by one. The purpose of
the game is to let the flower to survive one wave of attack (15 zombies).

Each step a zombie makes, there will be exchange of fire (the sunflower shoots seeds to the
zombie; the zombie throws stones to the sunflower), both the flower and the zombie receive
a certain degree of damage to their health. If the attacking zombies health down to 0%, the
zombie dies and then comes another until no more. If the sunflowers health reaches 0%,
game over.
Game rules:
Appendix 2 Solutions 228

The health level of the sunflower and zombies start at 100%

Zombie needs to travel 10 steps to get to the sunflower
During exchange of fire, the damage to the zombie and the sunflower are nondeter-
ministic. The flower receives a lot less damage than the zombie.
If a zombie arrives next to the sunflower, it will cause bigger damage to the sunflower.
There is a rare specie of Jump Zombie who can move two steps at a time.
The game speed is adjustable.

User Interface (UI) requirement:

This simulation is dynamically presented in text (not graphic), the zombies and the sunflower
are represented as Z(health) and F(health) respectively. The movement of zombies is
indicated by placing the zombie in the field as below.

F(100) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z87
F( 98) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z38 ___
F( 95) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z00 ___ ___

While the above show 3 lines of printed out text, in the simulation, there shall be only one
(see hints). The line text is re-printed again and again to achieve a Motion effect.
if the sunflower wins,

F( 11) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z00 ___ ___

You Win! Flower survived attacks from 15 zombies.

if the zombies win,

F( 0) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Z18 ___ ___ ___

Game Over! 2 zombies left.

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 229

ZOMBIES_COUNT = 15
DISTANCE = 10

class Sunflower
attr_accessor :health

def initialize
@health = 100
end

def exchange_fire(zombie)

if zombie.in_touch_distance?
@health -= 5
else
@health -= (rand(2) + 1)
end

if @health <= 0
@health = 0
end

zombie.health -= (rand(31) + 10) # betwen 10 to 40 damage

if zombie.health <= 0
zombie.die
else
zombie.move_forward
end

end

end

class Zombie
@@live_count = 0
attr_accessor :health, :step
attr_accessor :moving_speed
Appendix 2 Solutions 230

def initialize
@@live_count += 1
@health = 100
@step = 0
@moving_speed = rand(10) >= 8 ? 2 : 1 # 80% are jumping zombies
end

def self.remaining_lives
@@live_count
end

def die
@health = 0
@@live_count -= 1
end

def is_dead?
@health <= 0
end

def in_touch_distance?
@step == DISTANCE
end

def move_forward
@step += @moving_speed
if @step >= DISTANCE
@step = DISTANCE
end
end
end

print "\nY(100) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___"

sunflower = Sunflower.new
zombies = []
ZOMBIES_COUNT.times do
Appendix 2 Solutions 231

zombies << Zombie.new

end

active_zombie = nil

while (sunflower.health > 0) do

sleep 0.1 # adjust game speed, smaller number, faster

if active_zombie.nil? || active_zombie.is_dead?
active_zombie = zombies.shift unless zombies.empty?
end

break if zombies.empty? && (active_zombie.nil? || active_zombie.is_dead?) \

# no more zombies

sunflower.exchange_fire(active_zombie)
flower_health_str = sunflower.health.to_s.rjust(3, " ")
print "\r"
print "F(#{flower_health_str}) "

zombie_pos = "Z#{active_zombie.health.to_s.rjust(2, '0')}"

field = 10.times.collect {|x|
if active_zombie.step == (10-x)
zombie_pos
else
"___"
end
}.join(" ")
print field
end

if sunflower.health > 0
puts "\n\nYou Win! Sunflower survived attacks from #{ZOMBIES_COUNT} zombie\
s"
else
puts "\n\nGame Over! #{Zombie.remaining_lives} zombies left"
end
Appendix 2 Solutions 232

Chapter 10

10.1 Google Labs Aptitude Test

Solve this cryptic equation, every letter represent a distinct number between 0 - 9. No leading
zeros are allowed. (This was a Google Interview question).

WWWDOT
- GOOGLE
--------
DOTCOM

Solution

start_time = Time.now
(1..9).each do |w|

(1..9).each do |d|
next if d==w

(0..9).each do |o|
next if o==d || o==w

(1..9).each do |t|
next if t==o || t==d || t==w

(0..9).each do |g|
next if g==t || g==o || g==d || g==w

(0..9).each do |l|
next if l==g || l==t || l==o || l==d || l==w

(0..9).each do |e|
next if e==l || e==g || e==t || e==o || e==d || e==w

(0..9).each do |c|
Appendix 2 Solutions 233

next if c==e || c==l || c==g || c==t || c==o || c==d || c==w

(0..9).each do |m|

next if m==c || m==e || m==l || m==g || m==t || m==o || m=\

=d || m==w

top_no = w*100000 + w*10000 + w*1000 + d*100 + o*10 + t

bottom_no = g*100000 + o*10000 + o*1000 + g*100 + l*10 + e
result = d*100000 + o*10000 + t*1000 + c*100 + o*10 + m

if top_no - bottom_no == result

puts "#{top_no} - #{bottom_no} = #{result}"
# puts "g => #{g}, o => #{o}, l => #{l}, e => #{e}, d =>\
#{d}, t => #{t}, c => #{c}, m => #{m}, w => #{w}"
end

end
end
end
end
end
end
end
end
end

puts "Time to solve: #{Time.now - start_time}"

10.2 HCF (Recursion)

Appendix 2 Solutions 234

def hcf(a, b)
if a == 0
return b
elsif b == 0
return a
else
return hcf(b, a%b)
end
end

puts hcf(2480, 1824)

10.3 Compound Interest

We earn interest on the money deposited in the bank. The interest we receive for the first
year will be added to the principal (and then calculate the interest for the next year), this is
called Compound Interest. Write a program to calculate how much money you will receive
back at the given rate after certain years.

Enter deposited amount : $10000

Enter interest rate (8% enter 0.08): 0.06
For how long (years): 12

After 12 years, you will get $20121.96

Solution

def compound_interest(principal, rate, years)

if years == 0
return principal
else
principal = principal + rate * principal # new principal for this year
return compound_interest(principal, rate, years-1)
end
end

print "Enter deposited amount : $"

amount = gets.chomp.to_i
Appendix 2 Solutions 235

print "Enter interest rate (8% enter 0.08): "

rate = gets.chomp.to_f
print "For how long (years): "
years = gets.to_i
puts
the_total = compound_interest(amount, rate, years).round(2)
puts "After #{years} years, you will get $#{the_total}"

10.4 Farmer Crosses River Puzzle

A farmer wants to cross a river and take with him a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. There is
a boat that can fit himself plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If the wolf and the
goat are alone on one shore, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are alone
on the shore, the goat will eat the cabbage.
How can the farmer bring the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river?

Step 0
[] <= [:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage]
Step 1 [:farmer, :sheep] forward
[:farmer, :sheep] <= [:wolf, :cabbage]
Step 2 [:farmer] backward
[:sheep] <= [:farmer, :wolf, :cabbage]
Step 3 [:farmer, :wolf] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :sheep] <= [:cabbage]
Step 4 [:farmer, :sheep] backward
[:wolf] <= [:farmer, :sheep, :cabbage]
Step 5 [:farmer, :cabbage] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :cabbage] <= [:sheep]
Step 6 [:farmer] backward
[:wolf, :cabbage] <= [:farmer, :sheep]
Step 7 [:farmer, :sheep] forward
[:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage] <= []
Done!

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 236

def is_all_crossed_river?
@item_positions.values.all? {|x| x.to_s == "crossed"}
end

# farmer moves by himself or take another one (only one)

def move(item)
if @item_positions[item] == :crossed
@item_positions[:farmer] = @item_positions[item] = :not_crossed
else
@item_positions[:farmer] = @item_positions[item] = :crossed
end

@direction = @direction == :forward ? :backward : :forward

end

def undo_move(item)
if @item_positions[item] == :crossed
@item_positions[:farmer] = @item_positions[item] = :not_crossed
else
@item_positions[:farmer] = @item_positions[item] = :crossed
end
@direction = @direction == :forward ? :backward : :forward
end

def is_safe?
# OK if farmer is there

items_not_crossed = @item_positions.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "not_cr\

ossed" }.compact
items_crossed = @item_positions.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "crossed" }\
.compact

[items_crossed, items_not_crossed].each do |items_at_one_side|

return false if items_at_one_side.include?(:sheep) && items_at_one_side.\
include?(:cabbage) && !items_at_one_side.include?(:farmer)
return false if items_at_one_side.include?(:sheep) && items_at_one_side.\
include?(:wolf) && !items_at_one_side.include?(:farmer)
Appendix 2 Solutions 237

end

# false if one side wolf and sheep

# false if one side sheep and cabbage

return true
end

def has_done_before?
@moving_log.values.any?{|x|
x[:farmer] == @item_positions[:farmer] &&
x[:sheep] == @item_positions[:sheep] &&
x[:wolf] == @item_positions[:wolf] &&
x[:cabbage] == @item_positions[:cabbage]
}
end

def is_item_with_farmer?(item)
@item_positions[item] == @item_positions[:farmer]
end

def print_moving_log
@moving_log.keys.sort.each do |key|
action_str = "Step #{key}"

item_statuses = @moving_log[key]
items_not_crossed = item_statuses.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "not_cr\
ossed" }.compact
items_crossed = item_statuses.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "crossed" }\
.compact

if key > 0
prev_statuses = @moving_log[key -1]
prev_not_crossed = prev_statuses.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "not_c\
rossed" }.compact
prev_crossed = prev_statuses.collect{ |x, y| x if y.to_s == "crossed" \
}.compact
Appendix 2 Solutions 238

diff_crossed = items_crossed - prev_crossed

diff_not_crossed = items_not_crossed - prev_not_crossed

if diff_not_crossed.empty?
action_str += " #{diff_crossed} forward"
else
action_str += " #{diff_not_crossed} backward"
end

end
puts action_str

format_str = "#{items_crossed.inspect} <= #{items_not_crossed.inspect}"

puts format_str
end

end

@item_positions = { :farmer => :not_crossed, :wolf => :not_crossed, :sheep =\

> :not_crossed, :cabbage => :not_crossed }
@items = [:farmer, :wolf, :sheep, :cabbage]
@step = 1
@direction = :forward
@moving_log = { 0 => @item_positions.dup } # moving log starts with all in o\
ne side

def cross

if is_all_crossed_river?
print_moving_log
puts "Done!"
return # exit out of recursion
end

@items.each do |item|

next unless is_item_with_farmer?(item)

next if item == :farmer && @direction == :forward
Appendix 2 Solutions 239

move(item);

if is_safe? && !has_done_before?

# puts "is safe"
# puts "#{@step}| move #{item} #{@direction}"
@moving_log[@step] = @item_positions.dup
# puts @item_positions.inspect

@step += 1

cross(); # next step, recursive

else
undo_move(item); # "not safe, revert"
# puts @item_positions.inspect
end

end
end

cross()

10.5 Cryptic Math Equation (Backtracking)

Solve this cryptic equation, each letter stands for a unique digit (0-9) there are no leading
zeros.

UK
USA
+ USSR
--------
AGING

Solution
Appendix 2 Solutions 240

@@letters = ['U', 'K', 'S', 'A', 'R', 'G', 'I', 'N']

@letter_to_digits = {} # hash store the solution
@is_digit_used = {0 => false, 1 => false, 2 => false, 3 => false, 4 => false\
, 5 => false, 6 => false, 7 => false, 8 => false, 9 => false }

def decode_letters_to_number(a, d)
d.each do |k, v|
a = a.gsub(k,v) #if k && v
end
a.to_i
end

def check_ans()
a = decode_letters_to_number('UK', @letter_to_digits)
b = decode_letters_to_number('USA', @letter_to_digits)
c = decode_letters_to_number('USSR', @letter_to_digits)
d = decode_letters_to_number('AGING', @letter_to_digits)
# puts "[DEBUG] Checking #{a} + #{b} + #{c} = #{d}"
if a + b + c == d
puts "#{a} + #{b} + #{c} = #{d}" # got it
puts @letter_to_digits
end
end

def find_out(idx = 0)
if idx == @letters.length # got 8 letter filled
check_ans()
return
end

(0..9).each do |i|
# assign 0 - 9 to each letter
next if i == 0 and (@letters[idx] =='U' || @letters[idx] =='A' ) # no le\
ading 0
next if @letters[idx] == 'A' && i != 1
next if @letters[idx] == 'U' && i != 9
next if @letters[idx] == 'G' && i != 0
Appendix 2 Solutions 241

unless @is_digit_used[i]
@is_digit_used[i] = true # the number is used
@letter_to_digits[@letters[idx]] = i.to_s
find_out(idx + 1)
@is_digit_used[i] = false # clear
end

end
end

start_time = Time.now
find_out # start
puts "Time to solve: #{Time.now - start_time}"

Chapter 11

Sample Watir Script

require 'watir'

browser = Watir::Browser.new
browser.goto "http://travel.agileway.net"

browser.text_field(:name, "username").set("agileway")
browser.text_field(:name, "password").set("testwise")
browser.button(:value, "Sign in").click

browser.radio(:name => "tripType", :value => "oneway").click

browser.select_list(:name, "fromPort").select("New York")
browser.select_list(:name, "toPort").select("Sydney")
browser.select_list(:id, "departDay").select("04")
browser.select_list(:id, "departMonth").select("March 2012")
browser.button(:value,"Continue").click

browser.text_field(:name, "passengerFirstName").set("Bob")
browser.text_field(:name, "passengerLastName").set("Tester")
browser.button(:value,"Next").click
Appendix 2 Solutions 242

browser.radio(:name => "card_type", :value => "visa").click

browser.text_field(:name, "card_number").set("4242424242424242")
browser.button(:value, "Pay now").click
sleep 10 # wait for processing to complete
browser.link(:text, "Sign off").click

Sample Selenium Script

require 'selenium-webdriver'

browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox)
browser.navigate.to("http://travel.agileway.net")

browser.find_element(:id, "username").send_keys("agileway")
browser.find_element(:id, "password").send_keys("testwise")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Sign in']").click

browser.find_elements(:name => "tripType").each { |elem| elem.click && break\

if elem.attribute("value") == "oneway" && elem.attribute("type") == "radio"\
}

# one way of using select in selenium: slow

select_elem = browser.find_element(:name, "fromPort");
options = select_elem.find_elements(:tag_name, "option");
options.each { |opt| opt.click if opt.text == "New York"}

Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:name, "toPort\
")).select_by(:text, "Sydney")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:id, "departDa\
y")).select_by(:text, "04")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:id, "departMo\
nth")).select_by(:text, "March 2012")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Continue']").click

browser.find_element(:name, "passengerFirstName").send_keys("Wise")
browser.find_element(:name, "passengerLastName").send_keys("Tester")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Next']").click
Appendix 2 Solutions 243

browser.find_elements(:name => "card_type").each { |elem| elem.click && brea\

k if elem.attribute("value") == "visa" && elem.attribute("type") == "radio" \
}
browser.find_element(:name, "card_number").send_keys("4000000000000000")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(browser.find_element(:name, "expiry\
_year")).select_by(:text, "2013")
browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Pay now']").click

Sample Selenium Test in RSpec

require 'selenium-webdriver'
require 'rspec'

describe "Book flight" do

before(:all) do
@browser = $browser = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox)
@browser.navigate.to("http://travel.agileway.net")
end

after(:all) do
@browser.quit
end

it "Book flight with payment" do

@browser.find_element(:id, "username").send_keys("agileway")
@browser.find_element(:id, "password").send_keys("testwise")
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Sign in']").click
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("Signed in!") # Check

@browser.find_elements(:name => "tripType").each { |elem| elem.click && \

break if elem.attribute("value") == "oneway" && elem.attribute("type") == "r\
adio" }

Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:name, "f\
romPort")).select_by(:text, "New York")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:name, "t\
Appendix 2 Solutions 244

oPort")).select_by(:text, "Sydney")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:id, "dep\
artDay")).select_by(:text, "04")
Selenium::WebDriver::Support::Select.new(@browser.find_element(:id, "dep\
artMonth")).select_by(:text, "March 2012")

@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Continue']").click
@browser.find_element(:name, "passengerFirstName").send_keys("Wise")
@browser.find_element(:name, "passengerLastName").send_keys("Tester")
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Next']").click

@browser.find_element(:xpath, "//input[@name='card_type' and @value='vis\

a']").click
@browser.find_element(:name, "card_number").send_keys("4000000000000000")
select_elem = @browser.find_element(:name, "expiry_year");
options = select_elem.find_elements(:tag_name, "option");
options.each { |opt| opt.click if opt.text == "2013"}
@browser.find_element(:xpath,"//input[@value='Pay now']").click

sleep 10
# check
expect(@browser.page_source).to include("2012-03-04 <b>New York</b> to\
<b>Sydney</b>")
end

end
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245
Resources 246

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quizzes are generally quite hard.

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Over 100 sample automated test solutions in Selenium WebDriver, a popular auto-
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