From: CHubas <CHubas7@...>
Date: 2007-02-23T23:35:08+09:00
Subject: Re: concatenating strings with nil values

On Feb 23, 7:55 am, "tchick" <monsorno-nos...@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi *,
>
> I like to concatenate a string out of some variables, some of which
> are nil. Instead of getting always a "can't convert nil into String
> (TypeError)" message, I would like to have "nil" appended to my
> string, as in Java null objects are printed as null in Strings.
> Something like this:
>
>
> Is this possible? Or how can I handle nil objects for this case?
>
> Thanks.

Hi.
There are some ways to do it. The simplest I can suggest is:

allWords << (w[1] || "nil")

with the disadvantage you'd have to state it everywhere you expect a
nil value.

Another way is

class String
  alias old_concat <<
  def <<(something)
    something = "nil" if something.nil?
    old_concat(something)
  end
end

in which case is not recommended to mess up with core classes.