Greetings upon thee! Let’s evaluate some code for breakfast, cousins.
eval "100 + 1\n (42 + 100)" #=> 142
eval "100 + 1\n + (42 + 100)" #=> 142
The first line shouldn’t be hard for understanding. We evaluate two lines of
Ruby code. The second example does the same. The second line uses an unary
operator: +(42 + 100).
“We demand lunch now!”
eval "100 +\n (42 + 100)" #=> 242
eval "100 +\n + (42 + 100)" #=> 242
Again, we do the same thing. Here we just sum the 100 from the first line with
the second line. Straightforward.
“Where is our dinner?!”
eval "100.+(1\n.+(42 + 100))" #=> 243
eval "100.+(1)\n (42 + 100)" #=> 142
Brackets change the game. The first line evaluates to a different result (in comparison with the breakfast result). The second line is obvious.
“But we want more!”
eval "100 + (42\n+ 100)" #=> 200
eval "100 + (42 +\n 100)" #=> 242
Okay-okay! This is something unexpected. What’s going on? The first line seems
to be illogical. Where does the 42 go? Let’s see what the VM receives.
puts RubyVM::InstructionSequence.compile("100 + (42\n+ 100)").disassemble
== disasm: <RubyVM::InstructionSequence:<compiled>@<compiled>>==========
0000 trace 1 ( 2)
0002 putobject 100 ( 1)
0004 trace 1 ( 2)
0006 putobject 100
0008 opt_send_simple <callinfo!mid:+@, argc:0, ARGS_SKIP>
0010 opt_plus <callinfo!mid:+, argc:1, ARGS_SKIP>
0012 leave
Where are you, 42?
eval "100 + (puts 'omg'\n+ 100)"
omg
#=> 200
Here’s the disassembled sequence.
== disasm: <RubyVM::InstructionSequence:<compiled>@<compiled>>==========
0000 trace 1 ( 2)
0002 putobject 100 ( 1)
0004 trace 1
0006 putself
0007 putstring "omg"
0009 opt_send_without_block <callinfo!mid:puts, argc:1, FCALL|ARGS_SIMPLE>
0011 pop
0012 trace 1 ( 2)
0014 putobject 100
0016 opt_send_without_block <callinfo!mid:+@, argc:0, ARGS_SIMPLE>
0018 opt_plus <callinfo!mid:+, argc:1, ARGS_SIMPLE>
0020 leave
As some smart folks pointed out the trick is that \n is being replaced by ;.
So the following two expressions are identical.
eval "100 + (puts 'omg'\n+ 100)"
eval "100 + (puts 'omg';+ 100)"