Why do my Time objects never get evaluated as equal in Ruby?

Question

@dfa = Time.new
@type_me = gets
@i = 0
def type
  pause_duration = 2
  start_time = Time.new
  until Time.new == start_time + pause_duration
  puts "#{start_time + pause_duration} || #{Time.new}"
  end
  print @type_me[@i]
  @i += 1
  type
end

type

Why isn't Time.new ever equal to start_time + pause_duration?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 13 '12 at 05:44

1

You're just not likely to get them with the same microsecond precision in the loop. Use >= instead.

answered Oct 13 '12 at 05:44

pguardiario

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Thanks for telling me how to do it with >=. – cyclingLinguist Oct 13 '12 at 15:49
You're welcome. Also if all you want is to sleep for 2 seconds, use `sleep 2` – pguardiario Oct 13 '12 at 22:55

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 13 '12 at 05:45

1

It is not that they are never equal. It is that it is very rare that they become equal. The loop takes time for each iteration. You are only comparing times with that increment, which does not necessarily add up to exactly 2.0 seconds at any point.

answered Oct 13 '12 at 05:45

sawa

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Thank you for further elaborating on why they hardly ever are equal! ^_^ – cyclingLinguist Oct 13 '12 at 15:49

Why do my Time objects never get evaluated as equal in Ruby?

2 Answers2