How to escape/exit in IRB after entering code that requires more input/does not execute right away [closed]

Question

A particular line of code results in no output, and IRB exits out of the >> prompt. I am not looking to exit IRB, but just to exit to a state preceding the line of code that caused the >> prompt to go away.

>> stop_words = %w {the a and if}
>> stop_words.each{|x| stop_words << x.capitalize}
quit
quit
quit

1. Once I enter this situation, I cannot even exit the IRB shell, as the 'quit' command does not execute any changes.
2. I would like to exit the state and still have my preceding variable definitions intact, so that in the code example, I could call on stop_words to experiment with it. Any elucidation/insight into what's going on here is appreciated.

Answer 1

Your code infinitely loops, so you don’t get a new prompt as it is still processing your previous command.

You can hit CtrlC to abort the currently running command immediately.