what do these tags do <%- xxxxxx -%>

Hi,

I see some code from some open source project.

in many of the view files(.erb) , I see the following statements.

Idont understand how they are interpreted.. are they comments, or shown on UI, or just executed? [code] <%- column_div :type => :primary do -%>

  <h2>People Admin</h2>

  <%= will_paginate %>

  <ul class="list people admin">     <%= render :partial => @people %>   </ul>

  <%= will_paginate %> <%- end -%>

<%- column_div :type => :secondary do -%>   <%= render :partial => 'searches/box' %> <%- end -%>

[/code]

IN another file, they used these tags <%= xxxxxx -%>

[code] <li class="vcard person">   <%= person_link_with_image person, :class => "url fn" %> &mdash;   <%- activity = activated_status(person) -%>   <%= link_to activity,               admin_person_path(person, :task => "deactivated"),               :method => :put %>   >   <%- activity = person.admin? ? "unadmin" : "make admin" -%>   <%= link_to activity,               admin_person_path(person, :task => "admin"),               :method => :put %>   <p class="person_meta">     <strong>Forum Posts:</strong>     <%= person.forum_posts_count -%> |     <strong>Blog Posts:</strong>     <%= link_to person.blog.posts.count.to_s, blog_path(person) -%> |     <strong>Connections:</strong>       <%= link_to person.connections.count,                   person_connections_path(person) -%>   </p> </li> [/code]

Look at the rendered source to see the difference immediately.

<%- strips whitespace in front of the tag.

-%> strips trailing whitespace, including the newline.

This is useful for rendering plain-text emails without a bunch of gibberish whitespace.

Best, jeremy