Simple Syntax error

rubyonrails-talk
1

Care to take a minute and help out a newbie? :wink: I've tried everything I can think of, but I don't come from a programming background.

puts 'What is your first name?' first_name = gets.chomp puts 'Middle name?' middle_name = gets.chomp puts 'Last name?' last_name = gets.chomp puts 'did you know there are ' first_name + middle_name + last_name + 'characters' puts 'in your name' + first_name + middle_name + last_name + '?'

ERROR:

ruby length.rb length.rb:7: syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting $end ...ou know there are ' first_name + middle_name + last_name + '...

Thanks a ton :slight_smile:

2

Care to take a minute and help out a newbie? :wink: I've tried everything I can think of, but I don't come from a programming background.

puts 'What is your first name?' first_name = gets.chomp puts 'Middle name?' middle_name = gets.chomp puts 'Last name?' last_name = gets.chomp puts 'did you know there are ' first_name + middle_name + last_name + 'characters'

Because if you have a string delimited with ' marks you have to escape any ' you put in the string.

Some general info about strings in ruby

Fred

3

kook wrote:

Care to take a minute and help out a newbie? :wink: I've tried everything I can think of, but I don't come from a programming background.

You might like to work through some of the beginning-level tutorials such as Try Ruby, then.

And please, ask your general Ruby questions on the Ruby list. They're off topic for the Rails list.

puts 'What is your first name?' first_name = gets.chomp puts 'Middle name?' middle_name = gets.chomp puts 'Last name?' last_name = gets.chomp puts 'did you know there are ' first_name + middle_name + last_name + 'characters' puts 'in your name' + first_name + middle_name + last_name + '?'

Syntax error or no, this program won't do what you want. You need to learn how to take the length of a string (look at the docs for class String and you'll find what you need).

ERROR:

ruby length.rb length.rb:7: syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting $end ...ou know there are ' first_name + middle_name + last_name + '...

Thanks a ton :slight_smile:

You can't have a string and a variable name next to each other without an operator in between.

Best,