From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-10-18T05:43:28+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby way to say this?

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, matt neuburg wrote:

> In Ruby, zero isn't false and there is no equivalent of the ?: operator
> with the middle term omitted. So e.g. I'd like to say [pseudo-code from
> some other language]:
>
> oneThing()?:otherThing()
>
> meaning, if oneThing is nonzero, return oneThing, else return
> otherThing. Now, I don't want to evaluate oneThing twice, so I've ended
> up with this:
>
> (temp = oneThing()).nonzero? ? temp : otherThing()
>
> I don't like it. Is that culturally correct, or is there a ruby way to
> speak here, that I'm not thinking of? Thx - m.


why not write in ruby what you are saying in english?

     harp:~ > cat a.rb
     def one_thing() 0 end
     def other_thing() 1 end

     p [one_thing, other_thing].detect{|thing| not thing.zero?}

     def one_thing() 42 end
     def other_thing() 0 end

     p [one_thing, other_thing].detect{|thing| not thing.zero?}



     harp:~ > ruby a.rb
     1
     42

??

-a
-- 
my religion is very simple.  my religion is kindness. -- the dalai lama