From: pjb@... (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
Date: 2009-01-10T09:54:35+09:00
Subject: Re: value of an expression?

Kedar Mhaswade <kedar.mhaswade@gmail.com> writes:
> Sorry, I had a glimmer of hope but this script eclipsed it :(
> confused.rb
> -----------
> #!/usr/bin/ruby
>
> s="test"
> puts s
> s="surprising" if (1+1!=2)
> puts s
> s=("surprising" if (1+1!=2))
> puts s
> ------------
>
> Outputs:
> test
> test
> nil
>
> so, to add to a newbie's confusion, a pair of parenthesis does the 
> expected.

What did you expect?

case 1:
(s = "surprising") if ((1 + 1) != 2)  won't assign unless (1+1)!=2

case 2:
s = ("surprising" if ((1 + 1) != 2))  will assign the result of the
parenthese, which will be "surprising" if ((1 + 1) != 2) (and nil otherwise).
If you wanted not to do any assignment to s, then you should go back to
case 1.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__