Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Chapter 6 Creating Geometry Using Ruby Scripting
puts “Hello, #{salutation} #{name}”
return name.length
end
len = my_function( “Mr.”, “Bond” )
puts “Your name is #{len} characters long”
As you can see, you can assign attributes (such as name) to a method, let it do things,
and even return values.
With Ruby being an object-oriented language, the most elegant (and language-appropriate)
way to reuse code is to write a class that defines methods and variables and then use it by declaring
a new object instance based on this class. Because the main focus of this chapter is to create
geometry and to get you started in Ruby, the discussion of classes is intentionally omitted here.
Controlling Things: IF/THEN/ELSE
You may want to do something in your code after checking something else. You can do this
easily with the following lines:
length = 10
if length < 10
puts “Short”
elsif length > 10
puts “Long”
else
puts “Exactly 10”
end
Modify this snippet to your needs. For example, you don’t need the elsif or else parts
if all you are checking for is length < 10. Also, the complete list of comparative operators
is , ==, =, and != for “not equal.” You can combine comparisons using && for
“and” and || for “or” as in length == 10 && color == ‘blue’.
There are other ways to use the if statement, too. Here are some examples:
# used as a statement modifier
puts ‘Exactly 10’ if length == 10
# used as a one-liner
if length == 10: puts ‘Exactly 10’ end
# the ‘ternary operator’ version for assignment
label = length == 10 ? ‘Exactly 10’: ‘Not 10’
You can always use the exclamation mark to negate a comparison, as in !(length == 10).
TIP
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