The times Construct

Objectives

1. Understand the times construct and how it implements looping
2. Build a method using times

Introduction

The next construct in our list is times. There are two important distinctions to be mindful of when using times. The first one is that it has to be called on an Integer (like 1 or 10000). The second is that it executes the block a certain number of times, which is dependent on the number that it's called on. Let's look at the example below:

5.times do
  puts "Penguins like to jump off icebergs!"
end

This outputs Penguins like to jump off icebergs! five times in your Terminal.

Examples

Basic times Example: Dinner Party

Let's take a look at some more complex examples:

You just had a wildly successful dinner party with seven of your very best friends. Then they went home and left you with all of the dishes. They will not be invited back.

Let's clean those dishes using the times method:

7.times do 
  puts "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
end

# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."
# > "I am doing the dishes left by my former friends."

# => 7 (return value)

Intermediate times Example: Crime Spree

Okay, that's fine, but all we did was print some text––what if we wanted to change the value of a variable within a loop? Let's see how that works:

You are a jewel thief who has stolen one hundred (100) very valuable jewels (you are a really good jewel thief). But now you need to unload your stolen jewels from your bag into the safe in your secret hideout!

jewels_in_bag = 100

3.times do 
  puts "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
  jewels_in_bag = jewels_in_bag - 10
end

# => 3 (return value)

puts "We have #{jewels_in_bag} jewels still to hide!"


# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."

# > "We have 70 jewels still to hide!"

# => nil (return value)

Advanced times Example

This is fun and all, but so far we've only printed text within the block of code within the loop. What if we wanted to do something more, say, keep track of the number of jewels we are hiding as we hide them?

jewels_in_bag = 100

3.times do 
  puts "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
  jewels_in_bag = jewels_in_bag - 10
  puts "Now there are only #{jewels_in_bag} jewels left to hide!"
end
# => 3 (return value)

puts "We have #{jewels_in_bag} jewels still to hide!"
# => nil (return value)

# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
# > "Now there are only 90 jewels left to hide!"
# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
# > "Now there are only 80 jewels left to hide!"
# > "Hiding 10 stolen jewels."
# > "Now there are only 70 jewels left to hide!"

# > "We have 70 jewels still to hide!"

Using the times method

We're still struggling to master that levitation charm. Since we need to keep practicing, let's write some code that allows us to puts the phrase "Wingardium Leviosa" only seven times (instead of infinitely, like when we used just a plain loop construct).

Instructions

1. Fork and clone this lab.
2. Run the test suite with the learn command.
3. You'll be coding your solution in times.rb:

• Fill out the content of the using_times method so that calling it will puts the desired phrase, "Wingardium Leviosa" seven times by using the times keyword.

View The times Construct on Learn.co and start learning to code for free.

View Times on Learn.co and start learning to code for free.