ruby basic data type conversion

Question

I got some weired problem while converting data type in ruby.

Here are some of the outputs that i got in console

0123 and enter gave me output 83
12345600.to_s   #=> "12345600"

but

012345600.to_s gave me #=> "2739072" but i expect "012345600"

Seems like when there is 0 at the beginning of number the output is not as expected.

Can any one explain why this is happening? or provide me a solution so that i can get my expected output.

Thanks

Answer 1

Having a 0 at the start of a number makes the interpreter/compiler interpret the following digits as an octal number sequence (base 8) not a decimal number sequence (base 10). Therefore the number you entered is an octal number and not decimal.

You can test this on a scientific calculator by putting it into octal mode and then switching to decimal.