What is the difference between print and puts?

Question

puts adds a new line to the end of each argument if there is not one already.

print does not add a new line.

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For example:

puts [[1,2,3], [4,5,nil]] Would return:

1
2
3
4
5

Whereas print [[1,2,3], [4,5,nil]] would return:

[[1,2,3], [4,5,nil]]

Notice how puts does not output the nil value whereas print does.

A big difference is if you are displaying arrays. Especially ones with NIL. For example:

print [nil, 1, 2]

gives

[nil, 1, 2]

but

puts [nil, 1, 2]

gives

1
2

Note, no appearing nil item (just a blank line) and each item on a different line.

print outputs each argument, followed by $,, to $stdout, followed by $\. It is equivalent to args.join($,) + $\

puts sets both $, and $\ to "\n" and then does the same thing as print. The key difference being that each argument is a new line with puts.

You can require 'english' to access those global variables with user-friendly names.

The API docs give some good hints:

print() → nil

print(obj, ...) → nil

Writes the given object(s) to ios. Returns nil.

The stream must be opened for writing. Each given object that isn't a string will be converted by calling its to_s method. When called without arguments, prints the contents of $_.

If the output field separator ($,) is not nil, it is inserted between objects. If the output record separator ($\) is not nil, it is appended to the output.

...

puts(obj, ...) → nil

Writes the given object(s) to ios. Writes a newline after any that do not already end with a newline sequence. Returns nil.

The stream must be opened for writing. If called with an array argument, writes each element on a new line. Each given object that isn't a string or array will be converted by calling its to_s method. If called without arguments, outputs a single newline.

Experimenting a little with the points given above, the differences seem to be:

• Called with multiple arguments, print separates them by the 'output field separator' $, (which defaults to nothing) while puts separates them by newlines. puts also puts a newline after the final argument, while print does not.

  2.1.3 :001 > print 'hello', 'world'
  helloworld => nil 
  2.1.3 :002 > puts 'hello', 'world'
  hello
  world
   => nil
  2.1.3 :003 > $, = 'fanodd'
   => "fanodd" 
  2.1.3 :004 > print 'hello', 'world'
  hellofanoddworld => nil 
  2.1.3 :005 > puts 'hello', 'world'
  hello
  world
   => nil

• puts automatically unpacks arrays, while print does not:

  2.1.3 :001 > print [1, [2, 3]], [4]
  [1, [2, 3]][4] => nil 
  2.1.3 :002 > puts [1, [2, 3]], [4]
  1
  2
  3
  4
   => nil

• print with no arguments prints $_ (the last thing read by gets), while puts prints a newline:

  2.1.3 :001 > gets
  hello world
   => "hello world\n" 
  2.1.3 :002 > puts
  
   => nil 
  2.1.3 :003 > print
  hello world
   => nil

• print writes the output record separator $\ after whatever it prints, while puts ignores this variable:

  mark@lunchbox:~$ irb
  2.1.3 :001 > $\ = 'MOOOOOOO!'
   => "MOOOOOOO!" 
  2.1.3 :002 > puts "Oink! Baa! Cluck! "
  Oink! Baa! Cluck! 
   => nil 
  2.1.3 :003 > print "Oink! Baa! Cluck! "
  Oink! Baa! Cluck! MOOOOOOO! => nil

puts call the to_s of each argument and adds a new line to each string, if it does not end with new line. print just output each argument by calling their to_s.

for example: puts "one two": one two

{new line}

puts "one two\n": one two

{new line} #puts will not add a new line to the result, since the string ends with a new line

print "one two": one two

print "one two\n": one two

{new line}

And there is another way to output: p

For each object, directly writes obj.inspect followed by a newline to the program’s standard output.

It is helpful to output debugging message. p "aa\n\t": aa\n\t