From: Devin Mullins <twifkak@...>
Date: 2007-02-08T22:45:31+09:00
Subject: Re: DRY or not ...

Josselin wrote:
>    if params[:new_title].blank?
>      params[:new_title] = nil
>    elsif params[:new_title] == "null"
>      params[:new_title] = ""
>    end
   params[:new_title] = if params[:new_title].blank?
     nil
   elsif params[:new_title] == "null"
     ""
   end
For reasons yet unbeknownst to you, reverse that if statement:
   params[:new_title] = if params[:new_title] == "null"
     ""
   elsif params[:new_title].blank?
     nil
   end
Implicit in that if statement is an "else nil". (Try it in IRB.) So you 
don't really need anything but the first part:
   params[:new_title] = if params[:new_title] == "null"
     ""
   end
You can shorten even further by using the line-modifier version:
   params[:new_title] = ("" if params[:new_title] == "null")
(Parentheses are important, here. Otherwise, the if modifies the whole 
line, and if not "null", the :new_title remains unchanged.) But that's a 
little greek. Here's another way:
   params[:new_title] = params[:new_title] == 'null' ? '' : nil

Now, there's something very weird with the above logic, in the first 
place. You might be able to reduce even more code by changing the thing 
that sets :new_title. ("null", for Ford's sake?)

Devin