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Exercise 3: Convert String to Float

Explore how to convert strings representing numbers into floating-point values in Ruby. This lesson helps you understand the difference between strings and floats, and how to use Ruby methods to safely perform this conversion for effective data manipulation.

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Problem statement

Determine which method can be used to turn a string, such as "1.5", into a floating-point number, such as 1.5. Remember, floats and integers are different kinds of numbers. Confirm that you’ve found the right methods by trying them in the widget below.

Note: Assign your solution to the result variable to test the code.

Assume that the input string only contains data that can be safely converted to a floating-point number.

Example

input_string = "1"
result = 1.0

input_string = ""
result = 0.0

input_string = "2.2"
result = 2.2

Try it yourself

Ruby
def string_to_num(input_string)
  result = ""
  # Start your code here
  
  return result
end