From: ChrisH <chris.hulan@...>
Date: 2007-04-06T03:10:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Why is local variable created in one branch of if statement available in the other?

On Apr 5, 1:49 pm, "Alexey Verkhovsky" <alexey.verkhov...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I find it hard to understand why this code prints nil  instead of
> saying "unknown method or local variable foo":
>
> > cat hmm.rb
>
> def hmm
>   if false
>     foo = 'quack'
>   else
>     p foo
>   end
> end
>
> hmm> ruby hmm.rb
>
> nil
>
> Thoughts?
>
> --
> Alex Verkhovsky

The variable 'foo' is created during parsing stage so exists as "foo =
'quack'" has been parsed.
Execution then results in the assignment being skipped so foo has the
default nil value.

Cheers
Chris