From: Christopher Dicely <cmdicely@...>
Date: 2011-05-08T07:53:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Help with while condition OR condition

On Saturday, May 7, 2011, Bill W. <sirwillard42@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> This is my first post, so I hope I don't sound too inexperienced..
>
> I'm trying to teach myself Ruby, and have run into an issue with a while
> statement that will break if an input is "exit" or "quit".
> As of right now, it works if exit is input, but not quit
>
> I know I am completely misusing the entire thing, but here is what I
> came up with:
>
> EXIT = "exit"  #need constants since Ruby gets pissed at string literals
> QUIT = "quit"  #in a comparison
>
> print "Input: "
> input = gets
> while input.chomp.downcase != (EXIT || QUIT) #only works for exit

The || operator returns the operand on the left if it is "true-ish"
(anything other than nil or false), otherwise it evaluates and returns
the operand on the right. So (EXIT || QUIT) where EXIT="exit" just
evaluates to "exit".

You could do this with the || between two comparisons (rather than two
options in one comparison).

Also, Ruby has no problem with comparisons against string literals;
what made you think it did?