Preface 1. Ruby Basics Hello, Matz Interactive Ruby Resources Installing Ruby Permission Denied Associating File Types on Windows Review Questions 2. A Quick Tour of Ruby Ruby Is Object-Oriented Ruby's Reserved Words Comments Variables Strings Numbers and Operators Conditional Statements Arrays and Hashes Methods Blocks Symbols Exception Handling Ruby Documentation Review Questions 3. Conditional Love The if Statement The case Statement The while Loop The loop Method The for loop Execution Before or After a Program Review Questions 4. Strings Creating Strings Concatenating Strings Accessing Strings Comparing Strings Manipulating Strings Case Conversion Managing Whitespace, etc. Incrementing Strings Converting Strings Regular Expressions 1.9 and Beyond Review Questions 5. Math Class Hierarchy and Included Modules Converting Numbers Basic Math Operations Ranges Inquiring About Numbers More Math Methods Math Functions Rational Numbers Prime Numbers Review Questions 6. Arrays Creating Arrays Accessing Elements Concatenation Set Operations Unique Elements Blow Your Stack Comparing Arrays Changing Elements Deleting Elements Arrays and Blocks Sorting Things and About Face Multidimensional Arrays 1.9 and Beyond Other Array Methods Review Questions 7. Hashes Creating Hashes Accessing Hashes Iterating over Hashes Changing Hashes Converting Hashes to Other Classes 1.9 and Beyond Other Hash Methods Review Questions 8. Working with Files Directories Creating a New File Opening an Existing File Deleting and Renaming Files File Inquiries Changing File Modes and Owner The IO Class Review Questions 9. Classes Defining the Class Instance Variables Accessors Class Variables Class Methods Inheritance Modules public, private, or protected Review Questions 10. More Fun with Ruby Formatting Output with sprintf Processing XML Date and Time Reflection Using Tk Metaprogramming RubyGems Exception Handling Creating Documentation with RDoc Embedded Ruby Review Questions 11. A Short Guide to Ruby on Rails Where Did Rails Come From? Why Rails? What Have Other Folks Done with Rails? Hosting Rails Installing Rails Learning Rails A Brief Tutorial Review Questions A. Ruby Reference B. Answers to Review QuestionsGlossaryIndex