Ruby: How to get the first character of a string -

how can first character in string using ruby?

ultimately i'm doing taking someone's last name , creating initial out of it.

so if string "smith" want "s".

you can use ruby's open classes make code more readable. instance, this:

class string   def initial     self[0,1]   end end

will allow use initial method on string. if have following variables:

last_name = "smith" first_name = "john"

then can initials cleanly , readably:

puts first_name.initial   # prints j puts last_name.initial    # prints s

the other method mentioned here doesn't work on ruby 1.8 (not should using 1.8 anymore anyway!--but when answer posted still quite common):

puts 'smith'[0]           # prints 83

of course, if you're not doing on regular basis, defining method might overkill, , directly:

puts last_name[0,1]

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