I have a text file that I want to open first for reading or writing, but want the user to manually enter the text_file name (which opens the file for reading) first like so:

def read_in_albums
    puts "Enter file name: "
    
    begin
        file_name = gets().chomp
        if (file_name == "albums.txt")
            puts "File is open"
            a_file = File.new("#{file_name}", "r")
            puts a_file.gets
            finished = true
        else 
            puts "Please re-enter file name: "  
        end
    end until finished
end

From this unfinished code below, selecting 1 would go to the above procedure. I want the user to select 1 first, and if they choose 2 without having gone through read_in_albums they just get some sort of message like "no file selected and sent back to menu screen.

def main()
  finished = false
  begin
    puts("Main Menu:")
    puts("1- Read in Album") 
    puts("2- Display Album Info")
    puts("3- Play Album")
    puts("4- Update Album")
    puts("5- Exit")
    
    choice = read_integer_in_range("Please enter your choice:", 1, 5)
    case choice
    when 1
      read_in_albums
    when 2
      display_album_info  
    when 5
      finished = true
    end
  end until finished
end
    
main()

The only thing I can think of is something like

when 2
        if(read_in_albums == true)
            display_album_info  

and have it return true from read_in_albums.

which I don't want to do as it just goes through read_in_albums again, when I only want it to do that if the user pressed 1.

CodePudding user response：

You could either set a flag when option 1 was selcted

has_been_read = false
...
when 1 
    read_in_albums
    has_been_read = true
when 2
    if has_been_read
        display_album_info
    else
        puts "Select Option 1 first"
    end

Or just test if your file name is a valid string.

CodePudding user response：

All of your application's functionality depends on whether the album data has been read. You are no doubt storing this data as an object in memory referenced by some variable.

$album_data = File.read 'album.txt'

You can test whether this data is present in order to determine whether the file data has been read:

if $album_data.nil?
  # ask user for album file
else
  # show album user interface
end

There is no need for a separate flag. The mere presence of the data in memory serves as a flag already.