Code never enter any of the if statements

Question

begin
  selected_option = gets.chomp
  if selected_option == 1
    puts "Welcome to the Welcome Screen!"
  elsif selected_option == 2
    puts "This is the options menu."
  elsif selected_option == 3
    puts "Logging out. Goodbye!"
  else
    puts "Please select a valid option."
  end  
end while not selected_option == 3

I enter in 1 or 2 or 3 and I always get the "Please enter a valid option" message. I'm guessing that's because the chomp method retrieves the input as a string.

Any way around this sans using quotes around the options?

Answer 1

gets.chomp.to_i

Will convert it to an integer.

You may also want to use a switch instead:

begin
  selected_option = gets.chomp.to_i
  case selected_option
    when 1
      puts "Welcome to the Welcome Screen!"
    when 2
      puts "This is the options menu."
    when 3
      puts "Logging out. Goodbye!"
    else
      puts "Please select a valid option."
  end  
end while not selected_option == 3