Ruby x,y = gets.split.map &:to_i

Question

I am confused about this line of ruby code. Why is the assignment given to x, y and not a single variable?

x,y = gets.split.map &:to_i

Answer 1

This assigns the first entry from the array to x, and the second entry to y in contrast to assigning to a single variable in which case the array would be assigned to that variable.

Putting multiple variables on the left hand side of an assignment is a way of unpacking an array into separate variables. You can try this in irb:

irb(main):001:0> numbers = [1, 2, 3]
=> [1, 2, 3]
irb(main):002:0> first, second = numbers
=> [1, 2, 3]
irb(main):003:0> first
=> 1
irb(main):004:0> second
=> 2

Check out this answer to an older question that I wrote which gives some more details and is a good example of where this can be useful.