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Ivan Iliukhin
Ivan Iliukhin

Posted on • Originally published at evanilukhin.com

Ruby Interview Tasks - Simple word calculator

#ruby

Recently during an interview live coding session, I got a pretty interesting task:

# Make this code working
one.plus.two.equal # =>> 3
one.minus.three.equal # => -2
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I was tired and tried to solve it by adding some method to a String instance methods like there:

one = '1'

def one.plus
  temp_plus = "#{self}+"

  def temp_plus.two
    temp_plus_two = "#{self}2"

    def temp_plus_two.equal
      eval(self)
    end

    temp_plus_two
  end

  temp_plus
end

def one.minus
  temp_minus = "#{self}-"

  def temp_minus.three
    temp_minus_three = "#{self}3"

    def temp_minus_three.equal
      eval(self)
    end

    temp_minus_three
  end

  temp_minus
end

# Yes, it works
pp one.plus.two.equal # => 3
pp one.minus.three.equal => -2
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Looks bulky and terrible. Yes, Ruby allows to do this, but it is natural monkey patching, and I would not be used similar construction in real projects.
Six hours later, when I woke up, I realized that there is exist a significantly more straightforward and elegant solution. It’s just a realization of the method chaining pattern:

class Evaluator
  class << self
    def operation(name, expression_part)
      define_method(name) do
        return_new_instance expression_part
      end
    end
  end

  operation :plus,  '+'
  operation :minus, '-'
  operation :two,   '2'
  operation :three, '3'

  def initialize(expression = '')
    @expression = expression
  end

  def equal
    eval(@expression)
  end

  private

  def return_new_instance(expression_part)
    @expression = "#{@expression}#{expression_part}"
    self.class.new(@expression)
  end
end

one = Evaluator.new('1')
pp one.plus.two.equal # => 3
pp one.minus.three.equal # => -2
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Pretty neat!
This task is well for estimating the level of a developer. Specifically, the knowledge of method chaining pattern(interviewee mentioned it or just used it), how to use metaprogramming and awareness about monkey patching and bad solutions.

Top comments (2)

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decentralizuj profile image
decentralizuj • • Edited

Just to add approach that I wrote before reading your answers (your is better, but, well, it was just for fun :)

  class One
    def initialize
      @num = 1
    end

    def plus
      @opt = :add
      return self
    end

    def minus
      @opt = :rmw
      return self
    end

    def two
      case @opt
        when :add then @num += 2
        when :rmw then @num -= 2
      end
      return self
    end

    def three
      case @opt
        when :add then @num += 3
        when :rmw then @num -= 3
      end
      return self
    end

    def equal
      num  = @num
      @num = 1
      return num
    end
  end

  one = One.new
  one.plus.two.equal    =>  3
  one.minus.three.equal => -2
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evanilukhin profile image
Ivan Iliukhin •

That's why I love Ruby! It allows you to solve a problem in a large number of ways.

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