Greetings
Welcome to this simple tutorial!
I'm Alexandre Calaça, and I hope you're doing well.
Introduction
Today, we'll delve into the process of converting a string to lowercase in Ruby. This simple, but fundamental skill that will prove valuable in your Ruby programming journey.
The downcase method
In the Ruby programming language, the downcase method stands as the go-to solution for transforming a string to lowercase.
This method seamlessly produces a copy of the current object with all its characters converted to lowercase.
The
downcasemethod returns a copy of self (current object) with all characters downcased.
Syntax
"string".downcase
str.value
In the previous example, str is a variable name.
Parameters
The downcase method operates without requiring any parameters.
Return Value
When invoked, the method yields a new lowercase string based on the caller. If no conversion is needed, the original string remains unaffected.
Interestingly, appending the bang operator (!) to the method allows for the direct modification of the caller.
Coding Time
Now, let's delve into practical examples to solidify our understanding.
Upon examining the following examples, observe the following key points:
The
downcasemethod preserves the original string, leaving it unaltered.It generates a fresh lowercase string derived from the original caller.
irb(main):001:0> my_string = "ALEXANDRE"
irb(main):002:0> my_string.downcase
=> "alexandre"
irb(main):003:0> my_string
=> "ALEXANDRE"
it's possible to see that:
- The
downcasemethod returns the same string if no conversion is necessary.
irb(main):006:0> my_new_string = "alexandre calaca"
irb(main):007:0> my_new_string.downcase
=> "alexandre calaca"
irb(main):008:0>
And that:
- The
bangoperator allows thedowncasemethod to modify self.
irb(main):012:0> my_string = "AlExAnDrE"
irb(main):013:0> my_string
=> "AlExAnDrE"
irb(main):014:0> my_string.downcase!
=> "alexandre"
irb(main):015:0> my_string
=> "alexandre"
Done
Celebrate
Reach me out
Final thoughts
Thank you for reading this article.
If you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions, or corrections, please share them with us.
We appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you.
Feel free to suggest topics for future blog articles. Until next time!