Question

I looked up the to_ary method of the Array class. I am confused how the method relates to its source doc.

to_ary method => Returns self

If I do this:

1.9.3-p0 :013 > a = [1,33,42]
=> [1, 33, 42] 
1.9.3-p0 :014 > a.to_ary
=> [1, 33, 42] 
1.9.3-p0 :015 > a
=>[1, 33, 42] 

Why is the attribute static VALUE necessary? Is VALUE the retriever? Does a space (instead of a comma) between arguments mean the second argument is the method called by the receiver?

static VALUE

rb_ary_to_ary_m(VALUE ary) 
{
   return ary;
}

Best,

cj3kim

Answer 1

This is C code. The Ruby interpreter is wrote in the C language. In this code, the first argument is used as self. A equivalent in ruby would be:

def to_ary
  return self
end