Ruby: issues with an undefined method error

Question

I am working on a ruby banking problem and I keep coming across this error when trying to write the code for the deposit method. I would like the deposit method to put out a puts statement saying this person has enough cash to make this deposit and state amount, or it states they do not have enough cash to deposit. It says this error in my irb:

NoMethodError: undefined method `<' for nil:NilClass
from banking2.rb:30:in `deposit'
from banking2.rb:59:in `<top (required)>'

Can someone please help me find my error? I've tried several options but am not able to figure it out.

class Person

  attr_accessor :name, :cash_amount

  def initialize(name, cash_amount)
    @name = name
    @cash_amount = @cash_amount
    puts "Hi, #{@name}. You have #{cash_amount}!"
  end
end

class Bank

  attr_accessor :balance, :bank_name

  def initialize(bank_name)
    @bank_name = bank_name
    @balance = {} #creates a hash that will have the person's account balances
    puts "#{bank_name} bank was just created."
  end

  def open_account(person)
    @balance[person.name]=0 #adds the person to the balance hash and gives their balance 0 starting off.
    puts "#{person.name}, thanks for opening an account at #{bank_name}."
  end

  def deposit(person, amount)
    #deposit section I can't get to work
    if person.cash_amount < amount
      puts "You do not have enough funds to deposit this #{amount}."
    else 
      puts "#{person.name} deposited #{amount} to #{bank_name}. #{person.name} has #{person.cash_amount}. #{person.name}'s account has #{@balance}."
    end
  end

  def withdraw(person, amount)

    #yet to write this code 

    # expected sentence puts "#{person.name} withdrew $#{amount} from #{bank_name}. #{person.name} has #{person.cash_amount} cash remaining. #{person.name}'s account has #{@balance}. "

  end

  def transfer(bank_name)
  end

end


chase = Bank.new("JP Morgan Chase")
wells_fargo = Bank.new("Wells Fargo")
person1 = Person.new("Chris", 500)
chase.open_account(person1)
wells_fargo.open_account(person1)
chase.deposit(person1, 200)
chase.withdraw(person1, 1000)

can person.cash_amount be nil in any case ?

raviture
– raviture

2014-07-02 13:41:48 +00:00
Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 13:41 — raviture
– raviture, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 13:41

Linuxios · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-02 13:43:03Z

2

Change this in your initialize method on Person:

@cash_amount = @cash_amount

To this:

@cash_amount = cash_amount

You added an extra @ sign, so you set @cash_amount to @cash_amount. The default value for an uninitialized instance variable is nil in Ruby.

answered Jul 2, 2014 at 13:43

Linuxios

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2 Comments

user3604867 Over a year ago

Thank you! Sometimes it's the simplest mistakes that catch ya! :)

Piccolo Over a year ago

If you think this is a good answer and you want to accept it, press the green check under the number of points, @user3604867

sevenseacat · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-02 13:42:49Z

2

The only place you have a < is in person.cash_amount < amount, so the error is coming from there - person.cash_amount is nil.

Look at where cash_amount is being defined in your Person initializer - you are passing in def initialize(name, cash_amount) but then you are calling @cash_amount = @cash_amount!

Remove the second @ so you are actually assigning @cash_amount with the value you are passing in in cash_amount.

answered Jul 2, 2014 at 13:42

sevenseacat

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