Question

Basically I’m trying to create a BASIC sorting program in ruby without using .sort .
Here’s my code so far:

def optsort
@@a = 0
@@aa= 1
@@b = unsorted.size
@@smallestnum
@@ssmallestnum

while b !=1
if unsorted[a] <= unsorted[b] then
@@smallestnum = unsorted[b]
else @@smallestnu = unsorted[a]
end




@@a = @@a + 
@@aa = @@a + 1
b = b - 1
end

Please help me with the code.
ALSO: I get those error messages when I run it:

(eval):465: (eval):465: compile error (SyntaxError)
(eval):465: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND

The code is supposed to sort the numbers from least to greatest.

Answer 1

if unsorted[0] <<== unsorted[1] then numsmall = unsorted[a] 
               ^
(eval):51: syntax error, unexpected kTHEN, expecting kEND

That little ^ points to first problem here. <<== is not a legal operator in ruby, hence the syntax error. Perhaps you mean “less than or equal to” which is <=?

if unsorted[a] <= unsorted[b]

Also, indentation will help you understand the flow better, try rewriting that like this:

if unsorted[a] <= unsorted[b]
  numsmall == unsorted[a]
else
  numsmall = unsorted[b]
end