From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-12-24T12:06:07+09:00
Subject: Re: another nil concern

From: Nasir Khan [mailto:rubylearner@gmail.com] 
# irb(main):012:0> nil =~ /foo/
# => false
# 
# Should'nt it return nil instead?

depends on the beholder.

:~$ qri =~
---------------------------- Multiple choices:

     Gem::Dependency#=~, Gem::Platform#=~, Object#=~,
     REXML::Light::Node#=~, RegAnd#=~, RegOr#=~, Regexp#=~, String#=~

:~$ qri object#=~
--------------------------------Object#=~
     obj =~ other  => false
--------------------------------
     Pattern Match---Overridden by descendents (notably Regexp and
     String) to provide meaningful pattern-match semantics.


so you probably want,

> /foo/ =~ nil
=> nil


and if failing is divine, try #match

> /foo/.match nil
=> nil

> nil.match /foo/
NoMethodError: undefined method `match' for nil:NilClass