Harry Ohlsen <harryo / zip.com.au> wrote:
> Dave Thomas wrote:
> 
> > Steve Tuckner <SAT / MULTITECH.com> writes:
> > 
> >> Is there a built in way to handle conversion of hex values in strings to
> >> integers? Examples of possible syntax if it doesn't exist
> >>  
> >> "0xF0".to_i        # have it handle leading 0x for hex or 0 for octal
> > 
> >   "0xF0".hex
> > 
> > 
> > It's a method in String
> 
> It's an interesting point, though, in that you have to know, in advance, 
> that the string is a hex value (which you would most of the time, but I 
> could imagine cases where you have user interaction and it would be nice to 
> allow them to use '0' or '0x' prefixes if they want to).
> 
> Obviously, the programmer can do a quick test, but since this is fairly 
> entrenched idiom, perhaps String#to_i could include the test?
> 
> IMHO that would be the "least surprising" to the average programmer :-).
> 
> Alternatively, it sounds like a sufficiently useful thing to add as a new 
> method of String.

Try Integer() :)  I don't use String#to_i much since Integer() actually 
checks syntax a bit.

-- 
 Brian Fundakowski Feldman           \  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve!  /
 green / FreeBSD.org                    `------------------------------'