Getting input from User in Ruby language

Sometimes during the program you want ask user to interact with the program like asking his name or other details.

This can be easily achieved by Ruby gets method which is opposite of puts which print the output to standard output device i.e monitor.

In Ruby, we can get user input like this:

puts "Enter your name: "
name = gets.chomp
puts "Hello #{name}, how are you"

# output
Enter your name:
RubyGuru
Hello, RubyGuru, how are you
The reason for using 'chomp' after 'gets' is that 'gets' will read the data entered by user and store into variable 'name' along with new line char '\n'. The method 'chomp' will remove the trailing new line char and store only entered data into 'name'. 
puts "Enter your name: "
name = gets
puts "Hello #{name}, how are you"

# output
Enter your name:
RubyGuru
Hello, RubyGuru
, how are you     # new line effect

Extended example

In the following example, I have extended the use of gets to accept other details of person and transforming the data into appropriate variables.

print "Enter your name: "
name = gets.chomp
print "Enter your age: "
age = gets.to_i
print "Enter your address: "
addr = gets.chomp

puts "Hello, #{name}, how are you"
puts "If I am right, your age is '#{age}'"
puts "And, your address is '#{addr}', right?"

# output
Enter your name: foo
Enter your age: 10
Enter your address: barpak, gorkha, Nepal
Hello, foo, how are you
If I am right, your age is '10'
And, your address is 'barpak, gorkha, Nepal', right?

NOTE

  • to_i is used to convert the numeric string to integer.
  • print is used to ask information because puts will add new line char and give a feeling that you are entering your data in another line.

Calculator

Let’s build a small calculator program in Ruby. Here, we ask user two numbers and then print the addition of it.

print "Enter first number: "
num1 = gets.to_f

print "Enter second number: "
num2 = gets.to_f

puts "#{num1} + #{num2} = #{num1 + num2}"

Show Output

Enter first number: 5
Enter second number: 15
5.0 + 15.0 = 20.0
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