From: "William James" <>
Date: 2009-12-23T04:00:09+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie: if is not null else...

Alfonso Caponi wrote:

> Rick Denatale wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 8:32 AM, Alfonso Caponi
> > <alfonso.caponi@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi forum,
> > > 
> >> how can I replace this PHP syntax with Ruby?
> > > 
> >> $x = (isset($x) and !empty($x)) ? $x : '-';
> > > 
> >> I would like assign a default value if $x is Null.
> > 
> > The approximate Ruby idiom would be
> > 
> > $x ||= '-'
> > 
> > The only caveat is that this would (re)assign the value if $x were
> > either nil or false. This is usually not an issue, but if so then
> > you could use
> > 
> > $x = '-' if $x.nil?
> > 
> 
> Thank you very much Rick. Using:
> 
> x = '-' if x.nil?
> 
> I've x = Null again.. :(
> 
> It seems works with
> 
> if (x.to_s =~ Null)
>  x = '-'
> end
> 
> but I don't think is the best way to write it :(

What is Null?

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