Summary

In this chapter, we took a journey into data types and some very common operations that can be performed on them. We started out with array operations and took a closer look at adding, removing, and iterating over this data type. Then, we moved on to the hash data type and discovered the hidden magic that powers most of the web and desktop applications written in Ruby. Hashes are a very common way to store and manipulate data inside web applications. We added, removed, and iterated over hashes, and then performed some symbol-based sorting with nested hashes. Our final destination in this chapter was the methods and functions that allow us to create either functional or procedural applications in Ruby. Functions and methods in themselves are not of much use, so we imbued them with arguments. We also took a closer look at how optional and default arguments are handled in case multiple arguments are passed. This constituted a very important chapter, namely, how the extra arguments are mapped to the predefined arguments. In the next chapter, we will be studying methods in detail and how they define the program workflows.