On 1/5/07, Jacob, Raymond A Jr <raymond.jacob / navy.mil> wrote:
>
> I create a small method
>
>  def counting(p1,p2)
>         p1 = p1 + 1
>         p2 = p2 + 2
>         return p1,p2
>  end

A bit offtopic: you can shorten this to:

def counting(p1,p2)
        p1 += 1 # x += y is the same as x = x + y
        p2 += 2
        return p1,p2
end

or

or even

def counting(p1,p2)
        return p1 + 1, p2 + 2
end

>  sum-by-1s=0
>  sum-by-2s=0
>  while line = gets
>         # need driver test the method
>         line=line.chop
>         sum-by-1s, sum-by-2s = counting(sum-by-1s,sum-by-2s)
> end

I don't think sum-by-1s is a good variable name. You can't use - in a
name. It's reserved for minus. Names are made of A..Z, a..z, 0..9, @
and _.

> The method works. I am using PickAxe as my reference.
> I don't recall see any thing stating you could assign values in an array
>  to variables by separating the variables by  commas on the leftside of
> the
>  assignment statement. I just want to know which book or reference
> should I use to
>  understand why assignments can be made in this way?
> Or am I just seeing a side effect of my poor coding skills?

This is normal. See the link below. It's used in block parameters as well

i.e.: you can do [[1,2],[3,4]].each {|a| ... } or [[1,2],[3,4]].each
{|a,b| ... }
in the former case you'll get [1,2] and [3,4] for a, in the latter
a=1,3 and b=2,4.

http://ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_expressions.html#UC