How to convert a string to lowercase in Ruby?

Greetings

Hey, It's Alexandre Calaça here. Hope you're good.

Introduction

Today, let's learn and practice how to convert a string to lowercase in Ruby.

The downcase method

In Ruby, the downcase method is used to convert a string to lowercase. It returns a copy of self (current object) with all characters downcased.

Syntax

"string".downcase

or

str.case

In the previous example, str is the variable name.

Parameters

The downcase method doesn't require parameters.

Return value

It returns a new lowercase string of the caller. If no conversation is necessary, It returns the original string.

It's possible to return and modify self (current caller) if we use the bang operator after the method.

Coding time

Let's check the examples and learn from them.

In the following examples, it's noticeable that:

• The downcase method doesn't modify the original string;
• It returns a new lowercase string of the 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 downcase method 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 bang operator allows the downcase method 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"
  

Conclusion

In this article, it was possible to learn and practice how to convert a string to lowercase in Ruby. There were excellent examples.

That's all for today. Reach me out if you have any questions, guys.

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