Syntax error: initialization with splat operator and empty hash

Asked Feb 08 '17 at 20:39

Active Feb 08 '17 at 20:54

Viewed 255 times

-1

I have the following code that as far as I know should work correctly but doesn't:

def calculate( *nums, options = {} ) //errors out here on equals sign
  if options.empty
    return add(nums)
  elsif options[:subtract]
    return substract(nums)
  elsif options[:add]
    return add(nums)
  end
end

Error:

class: SyntaxError message: /opt/eval-server/eval-server/app/models/eval_spec_runner.rb:5: syntax error, unexpected '=', expecting ')' def calculate( *nums, options = {} ) ^ backtrace: RubyMonk:18:in `eval'

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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asked Feb 08 '17 at 20:39

jStaff

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I am pretty sure no one can explain this better than @JörgWMittag did on [This SO Post](http://stackoverflow.com/a/17173107/1978251). BTW you could not define options in the signature and instead use something like `options = nums.last.is_a?(Hash) ? nums.pop : {}` in the body of your method. – engineersmnky Feb 08 '17 at 21:14
That post solves this one. I cannot delete this post because it is flagged by a moderator. – jStaff Feb 09 '17 at 21:26

1 Answers1

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A splat argument must be the last argument of your method.

answered Feb 08 '17 at 20:54

Brennan

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Not necessarily true [Read here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17173034/optional-argument-after-splat-argument/17173107#17173107) – engineersmnky Feb 08 '17 at 21:16
I found that 1.8 and 1.9+ have differences for this standard. Hmm... – jStaff Feb 08 '17 at 21:41
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@jStaff: Yes. 1.9 relaxed some rules. 2.0 added optional keyword parameters. 2.1 added mandatory keyword parameters. – Jörg W Mittag Feb 09 '17 at 01:00