From: Bhavesh Sharma <sharmabhavesh@...>
Date: 2011-09-29T02:20:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Syntax @keywords ||=

Chad Perrin wrote in post #1024125:
> On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 02:07:35AM +0900, Bhavesh Sharma wrote:
>> Sorry if this comes across as a dumb question, but what does the
>> following syntax mean in ruby.
>>
>> @keywords ||= []
>>
>> I understand that its setting the instance variable as an array but what
>> is the logical operator '||' doing in there.
>
> The ||= operator is exactly what it looks like: "or equals".  That is,
> because every valid chunk of code in Ruby is an expression, you can read
> "@keywords ||= []" as "give me the keywords variables value, or set it
> equal to an empty array (and give me that)".
>
> Thus, if the contents of @keywords evaluate to "true" (that is, it
> contains some value other than false or nil), that expression simply
> evaluates to the value of @keywords.  Otherwise, the expression assigns
> the empty array to @keywords, and evaluates to an empty array.

Thanks Chad,

I didnt see this specific operator on
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ruby/ruby_operators.htm

does this mean that I can create permutations of some operators and it 
would still be valid.

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