UPDATE:
I keep getting constant up votes on this, hence the edit. Using [-1, 1] is correct, however a better looking solution would be using just [-1]. Check Oleg Pischicov’s answer.
line[-1]
# => "c"
Original Answer
In ruby you can use [-1, 1] to get last char of a string. Here:
line = "abc;"
# => "abc;"
line[-1, 1]
# => ";"
teststr = "some text"
# => "some text"
teststr[-1, 1]
# => "t"
Explanation:
Strings can take a negative index, which count backwards from the end
of the String, and an length of how many characters you want (one in
this example).
Using String#slice as in OP’s example: (will work only on ruby 1.9 onwards as explained in Yu Hau’s answer)
line.slice(line.length - 1)
# => ";"
teststr.slice(teststr.length - 1)
# => "t"
Let’s go nuts!!!
teststr.split('').last
# => "t"
teststr.split(//)[-1]
# => "t"
teststr.chars.last
# => "t"
teststr.scan(/.$/)[0]
# => "t"
teststr[/.$/]
# => "t"
teststr[teststr.length-1]
# => "t"