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Ingrid Bardales
10,616 Pointsconditional assignment: if variable is an empty string why doesn't this snippet return the else statement
name = "Jason"
if defined?(name) name else name = "Andrew" end
puts name
exit
This snippet in the video lesson returns Jason, so i wanted to know what it would return if I left the variable name as an empty string, like so: name = ""..thinking that it might return Adrew...but it returned nothing.
Can someone please explain why?
Thanks a million in advance!!
Ingrid
Ingrid Bardales
10,616 PointsHi Andrew, thanks for replying. The code below is all the code for this example. It's the last video under Ruby Boolean. Sorry that i don't have any more information.
name = "Jason"
if defined?(name) name else name = "Andrew" end
puts name
exit
2 Answers
Rachelle Wood
15,362 PointsIt is because if you define name = "" you are in fact assigning an empty string to name. Since name is defined to this empty string, you return the empty string. Andrew will only appear on your screen if you don't assign the name variable.
Ingrid Bardales
10,616 PointsThank you so very much!!! I just about given up on this.
Rachelle Wood
15,362 PointsYou're very welcome! Glad I could help.
JoJo KoKo
4,712 PointsSince I can't see your method defined? , you can do something nice and built in from Ruby like so:
name = "Jason"
name.empty? ? name = "Andrew": name --> ternary operator
OR
if name.empty? name else name = "Andrew"
Ingrid Bardales
10,616 PointsHi JoJo thanks for replying, the code below is the only code that was used for the example. It's the last video under Ruby Boolean. Sorry i don't have any more information.
Thanks, Ingrid
name = "Jason"
if defined?(name) name else name = "Andrew" end
puts name
exit
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 PointsAndrew Stelmach
12,583 PointsIf you post up the code for the
definedmethod I could probably give you an answer.