From: Patrick Toomey <ptoomey3@...>
Date: 2006-09-24T01:47:05+09:00
Subject: Riddle me this (a question about expressions)

Hello all,
   I am new to Ruby and am toying around with the language to get a  
feel for the expression ubiquity in ruby.  Anyway, explain to me the  
following.  The below bits of code have no real relevance; they are  
merely illustrative of my question.  The first declaration works as  
expected; the return value is 9.  The second declaration doesn't run  
at all.  I get a "void value expression" error.  Is the runtime  
looking into my if statement, realizing that there is no ability for  
x to get set and failing?  Obviously the code is ridiculous, but it  
seems odd to me that it would not even run.  Why does the interpreter  
care that x will never get set if the function will return cleanly  
none the less?

def foo()
   x = 0
   x = if 3 > 4
           8
         else
           9
         end
   return x
end

def foo()
   x = 0
   x = if 3 > 4
           return 8
         else
           return 9
         end
   return x
end