Hi,
I wanted to do this: get display_name as one of those nick_name, first and last in that order. @display_name = @nick_name || @first_name || @second_name
but if nick_name turns out be "" and not ni. so @display_name gets "" and not the values in first or second.
How do we handle this situation?
Regards, Sandeep G
I handle this by creating a String#nonblank? to work like Numeric#nonzero? (see docs)
class String # Allowing a chain like: string_value.nonblank? || 'default value' def nonblank? self unless blank? end end
and to duck-type when nil:
class NilClass # Allowing a chain like: value.nonblank? || 'default value' def nonblank? self end # so it plays nicely with Numeric#nonzero? def nonzero? self end end
Then your example becomes:
@nick_name = nil @first_name = "" @second_name = "Sandeep"
>> @display_name = @nick_name.nonblank? || @first_name.nonblank? || @second_name.nonblank? => "Sandeep"
You can actually leave the .nonblank? off of the last part if you don't care nil v. '' depending on @second_name.
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
