From: Jay Levitt <jay+news@...>
Date: 2007-10-20T08:25:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Is it always the norm to skip 'return'?

On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:38:42 +0900, Peter Hickman wrote:

> For the simpler methods it does seem to be a waste to put a return in 
> there however it should be remembered that the "if" also returns a value. So
> 
> def other(number)
>     if number == 1 then
>         puts "In the true condition"
>         "the number was 1"
>     else
>         puts "In the false condition"
>         "it was something else"
>     end
> end
> 
> puts other(21)
> 
> outputs
> 
>  > In the false condition
>  > it was something else
> 
> The implicit return here is for the whole of the if. Which can be quite 
> a pain to track down :(

I think that's not true, and you're mistaking the output of "puts" on the
function (which IS nil) for the output of the if statement (which is the
output of the branch that's taken).

I know I've seen and used the if/else implicit-return idiom, and a quick
IRB check (1.8.6 Cygwin) shows:

irb(main):001:0> def other(number)
irb(main):002:1> if number == 1
irb(main):003:2>   "it was one"
irb(main):004:2> else
irb(main):005:2*   "it was not one"
irb(main):006:2> end
irb(main):007:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):008:0> other(21)
=> "it was not one"
irb(main):009:0> puts other(21)
it was not one
=> nil
irb(main):010:0> other(21).inspect
=> "\"it was not one\""


-- 
Jay Levitt                |
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