Ruby default values error

Question

I was reading the source code of a gem "activerecord-postgres-earthdistance".

While running the migration script, it threw an error on the following method

def order_by_distance lat, lng, order: "ASC"

It gave an error for order: "ASC"

syntax error, unexpected tLABEL

Isn't this valid Ruby syntax?

bjhaid · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-07 16:44:46Z

2

Ruby 2.0 supports keywords arguments

[5] pry(main)> def bar(a: "name", b: "fem"); puts a,b end
[6] pry(main)> bar(a: "John", b: "Male")
John
Male
[7] pry(main)> bar("John", "Male")
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (2 for 0)
from (pry):5:in `bar'

However the above is not valid in 1.9 see below:

ruby 1.9.3p448 (2013-06-27 revision 41675) [x86_64-darwin12.4.0]
[2] pry(main)> def bar(a: "name", b: "fem"); puts a,b end
SyntaxError: unexpected ',', expecting $end
def bar(a: "name", b: "fem"); puts a,b end
              ^
[2] pry(main)> def bar(a: "name"); puts a end
SyntaxError: unexpected ')', expecting $end
def bar(a: "name"); puts a end
              ^

For better understanding you can read here and here

edited Dec 7, 2013 at 16:44

answered Dec 7, 2013 at 16:36

bjhaid

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:21:39Z

0

def order_by_distance(lat, lng, hash={})
  puts hash[:order]
end

=> order_by_distance(lat, lng, order: "ASC")
=> "ASC"

use hash arguments in ruby

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:21

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 7, 2013 at 13:56

Roman Kiselenko

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8 Comments

JunaidKirkire Over a year ago

I tried that too def foo( a, b: "ASC") puts "runs" end It gives the error syntax error, unexpected ')', expecting $end

Roman Kiselenko Over a year ago

what ruby version you use?

JunaidKirkire Over a year ago

ruby 1.9.3p194 (2012-04-20 revision 35410) [x86_64-linux]

Roman Kiselenko Over a year ago

def foo( a, b: "ASC") puts "runs" end inline?

Roman Kiselenko Over a year ago

for inline use need def foo( a, b: "ASC"); puts "runs"; end

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