What does the % operator do in Ruby in N % 2?

Question

if counter % 2 == 1 I am trying to decode this line - it\'s a Rails project and I am trying to figure out what the % does in this if statement.

Answer 1

In answer to the question "What does the % symbol do or mean in Ruby?" It is:

1) The modulo binary operator (as has been mentioned)

17 % 10 #=> 7 

2) The alternative string delimiter token

%Q{hello world} #=> "hello world"
%Q(hello world) #=> "hello world"
%Q[hello world] #=> "hello world"
%Q!hello world! #=> "hello world"
# i.e. choose your own bracket pair
%q(hello world) #=> 'hello world'
%x(pwd)         #=> `pwd`
%r(.*)          #=> /.*/

3) The string format operator (shorthand for Kernel::sprintf)

"05d" % 123 #=> "00123"