From: Daniel Schierbeck <daniel.schierbeck@...>
Date: 2006-07-28T23:40:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Weird problem with case expressions

dblack@wobblini.net wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> On Fri, 28 Jul 2006, Daniel Schierbeck wrote:
> 
>> I have no problem doing this:
>>
>>  if foo :bar then
>>    ...
>>  end
>>
>> Yet when I do this:
>>
>>  case "foo"
>>    when bar :baz then "bur"
>>  end
>>
>> I get the following syntax error:
>>
>>  SyntaxError: compile error
>>  (irb):30: parse error, unexpected tSYMBEG, expecting kDO or '{' or '('
>>    when bar :baz then "bur"
> 
> I guess when binds more tightly than a parentheses-less method call.
> You could do:
> 
>   when bar(:baz) ...

Thank you for the response. Yes, it seems there is no way to get around 
using parentheses. It's actually just an aesthetic problem; the method 
in question has a question mark suffix, and I like to call such methods 
without parentheses. Specifically, it was an attempt at an aesthetically 
pleasing version of the code in "Symbols are your friend":

   case "foo"
     when of_type? :int then "integer"
     when of_type? :str then "string"
   end

Unfortunately, I'll have to write it like this:

   case "foo"
     when of_type?(:int) then "integer"
     when of_type?(:str) then "string"
   end

It doesn't really matter that much though -- I'm not even sure I like 
that solution.


Cheers, and thanks for replying,
Daniel