From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2007-09-26T01:59:18+09:00
Subject: Re: so surprised syntax error not caught here

On 9/25/07, SpringFlowers AutumnMoon <summercoolness@gmail.com> wrote:
>  the following syntax error for "elif" is not caught?  (should be elsif)
>
> def foo(i)
>   if i < 0
>     return "Less than 0"
>   elif i == 0
>     return "it is zero"
>   else
>     return "Greater than 0"
>   end
> end
>
> p foo(-2)
> p foo(0)
> p foo(10)

It's treating "elif" as a (possible) method call that's never reached
because of the "return". You don't need "return" for what you have:

def foo(i)
  if i < 0
    "Less than 0"
  elif i.zero? # i == 0
    "Equal to 0"
  else
    "Greater than 0"
  end
end

That will fail, but not with a syntax error. (It should fail with an
UnknownMethod.) Ruby is expression-oriented, and the last expression
executed in the execution path is returned from the execution path.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com * http://www.halostatue.ca/
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               * austin@zieglers.ca