From: Florian Gross <flgr@...>
Date: 2004-12-04T05:08:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie question

Williams, Chris wrote:

> I keep writing code like this:
>     if @params["limit"]
>       @limit = @params["limit"]
>     else
>       @limit = 50
>     end
> 
>     if @params["chain"]
>       chain = @params["chain"]
>     else
>       chain = 1
>     end

I'd do something like this

defaults = {
   "limit" => 50,
   "chain" => 1
   # more defaults
}
@values = defaults.merge(@params)

And then do @values["limit"] instead of @limit. This however only makes 
sense when there is a logical connection between those values. I'd 
prefer it in that case because it is way less duplication.