From: Josh Cheek <josh.cheek@...>
Date: 2010-12-14T08:09:15+09:00
Subject: Re: String or string

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On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 4:53 PM, Garrison Taylor
<garrisontaylor@gmail.com>wrote:

> I am doing something where I do
> If "force" || "spells"
> Puts "blah"
>
>
>
> When I use it it gives a warning about comparing strings, what's happening
> and how do I fix it?
>
> Scratch.mit.edu. Go there!
>
> -gbear605
>

|| is a boolean method meaning "or". It is concerned with the truthiness and
falsiness of its parameters. The set of falsy objects is { false , nil },
everything else is truthy. That means that strings are truthy, so when you
say "force" || "spells" it looks at "force", sees it isn't false and it
isn't nil, and so is considered true. Every time.

So "force" || "spells" will always return "force", a truthy value, to the if
statement. Thus the if statement will always execute.

if "force" || "spells"
  puts "blah"
end

is the same as

if "force"
  puts "blah"
end

is the same as

if true
  puts "blah"
end

is the same as

puts "blah"



That is probably not what you wanted, so it warns you of the issue.

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