From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2007-01-16T22:05:32+09:00
Subject: Re: where to find info on ||= operator ?

On 1/16/07, Josselin <josselin@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> I am using
>
> http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/
>
> a sa reference manual, but could not find info on that operator  (how
> to use it..)

It's syntax sugar:

foo <operator>= bar

expands to

foo = foo <operator> bar

So a ||= b expands to a = a || b, which (since || is short-circuiting)
means "set a to b if a is nil (or false), otherwise leave it at its
current value.

martin