Search code examples
rubymkdirgets

Extra Characters from console I/O using gets

I'm trying to build a ruby program which creates a directory and name it using console input. 

1 #!/usr/bin/env ruby¬
2 ¬                                                                           
3 puts 'HW date, format MM-DD:'¬
4 ¬
5 directory_name = 'hw_' + gets¬
6 ¬
7 begin¬
8 ▸ if File::directory?(directory_name)¬
9 ▸ ▸ return¬
10 ▸ end¬
11 ▸ Dir.mkdir(directory_name)¬
12 end¬

However the directies created alway have garbage characters on the end of them?

$ ./start_hw.rb 
HW date, format MM-DD:
01-13
$ ls
hw_01-13?   start_hw.rb

How do I make it stop placing the ? (i.e. Non-printable characters)

Solution

  • The ruby gets function returns the line ending characters at the end so you should use chomp to remove them.

    directory_name = 'hw_' + gets.chomp
puts directory_name.inspect  # print it to make sure there is no junk