From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-04-28T18:32:09+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby conditional operator ? :


On Apr 28, 2007, at 6:23 PM, Jano Svitok wrote:

> On 4/28/07, John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Apr 28, 2007, at 5:51 PM, Yaxm Yaxm wrote:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> > in java, I can use ? : shorthand operators to ensure s is  
>> assigned to
>> > some value.
>> > String s = s == null ? "" : s;
>> >
>> > Is there similar shorthand operator in Ruby?
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>> > Yaxm
>> >
>> > --
>> > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>> >
>>
>> The same old ternary operator is in Ruby as in most languages these
>> days.
>>   ?  :
>> so...
>>
>> conditional_statement ? true_result : false_result
>
> For assigning default value ||= is usually used (for non-logic values)
>
> i.e.
> @name ||= "Joe"
>
> doesn't work for logic values (will overwrite false)
> search google for ruby idioms (e.g.
> http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby/page/show/RubyIdioms)
>
> Jano
>

of course there are many ways to set default values. The Perl slogan  
applies to Ruby very well.