Ruby: undefined method * for nil nilclass

Question

I got the undefined method * for this code running in irb. I'm using ruby 2.0.0p195 (2013-05-14) [i386-mingw32] on Windows 7 x32. It does two simple classes for geometrical shapes.

class Shape
  ERR = 'Error: area or perimeter method missing.'
  PI  = 3.14159265358
  attr_accessor :id

  def initalize(id = 'shape')
    @id = id
  end

  def get_area
    raise ERR
  end

  def get_perimeter
    raise ERR
  end

  def to_s
    "id: #{@id}, area: #{get_area}, perimeter: #{get_perimeter}"
  end
end

class Triangle < Shape
  attr_accessor :a, :b, :c, :h

  def initalize(id = 'triangle', a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, h = 4)
    @id = id
    @a, @b, @c, @h = a, b, c, h
  end

  def get_area
    @b * @h * 0.5
  end

  def get_perimeter
    @a + @b + @c
  end
end

These are the commands with irb.

irb(main):001:0> load 'shapes.rb'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> tri = Triangle.new
=> #<Triangle:0x22d17c8>
irb(main):003:0> puts tri
NoMethodError: undefined method `*' for nil:NilClass
        from shapes.rb:41:in `get_area'
        from shapes.rb:28:in `to_s'
        from (irb):3:in `puts'
        from (irb):3:in `puts'
        from (irb):3
        from D:/Ruby/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'

One of your variables is nil... So you can not multiply by nil. — Larry McKenzie
– Larry McKenzie, Commented May 30, 2013 at 6:11

Pigueiras · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-30 06:12:30Z

7

You misspelled the method initialize and you wrote initalize.

That's why one of your variables is nil and the tipical exception NoMethodError: undefined method ... for nil:NilClass is raising.

answered May 30, 2013 at 6:12

Pigueiras

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