From 1ecaf599ff22d6102dde5b76699d78ec13758d88 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: drbrain Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:27:45 +0000 Subject: * doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc (Local Variables and Methods): Made it more clear that local variables are created by the parser, not execution. Thanks to John Hawthorn. git-svn-id: svn+ssh://ci.ruby-lang.org/ruby/trunk@38881 b2dd03c8-39d4-4d8f-98ff-823fe69b080e --- doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc | 12 +++++++++++- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'doc') diff --git a/doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc b/doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc index 830ba39ff0..c371593fbe 100644 --- a/doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc +++ b/doc/syntax/assignment.rdoc @@ -70,7 +70,17 @@ have not assigned to one of these ambiguous names ruby will assume you wish to call a method. Once you have assigned to the name ruby will assume you wish to reference a local variable. -This leads to some potentially confusing code, for example: +The local variable is created when the parser encounters the assignment, not +when the assignment occurs: + + a = 0 if false # does not assign to a + + p local_variables # prints [:a] + + p a # prints nil + +The similarity between method and local variable names can lead to confusing +code, for example: def big_calculation 42 # pretend this takes a long time -- cgit v1.2.3