"robin" <robin.houston / gmail.com> wrote/schrieb <1169920481.252703.112350 / a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>:

>   2.times{|n| i,j = n,i; puts "i=#{i}, j=#{j.inspect}"}
> 
> Can you explain why j is nil rather than 0, the second time round?

I'll try. Everytime the block is executed, new variables n, i and j
are created, because they don't already exist outside the block. If
you want i to be shared, it should already exist before, e.g.:

  i = nil
  2.times{|n| i,j = n,i; puts "i=#{i}, j=#{j.inspect}"}

Regards
  Thomas