From: "Darryl L. Pierce" <mcpierce@...>
Date: 2011-11-09T23:25:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Can't get "or" or "||" to work.

On 11/09/2011 09:02 AM, james gallagher wrote:
> Hi.  I have a stupid question.
> 
> I'm stuck on the bit of ruby that follows:
> 
> name = gets.chop.downcase
> if name != "bob" || "fred"
>   puts "That wasn\'t one of the choices."
> else
>   code
> 
> If I put "bob" in it says:
> 
> That wasn't one of the choices.
> 
> It does the same for anything I put in.

Your logic is off. You're wanting to see if name is either "bob" or
"fred", right? Then you have to do:

if (name != "bob") && (name != "fred")

or, better still:

unless ["bob", "name"].include? name

What you've written is trying to compare name to a boolean (specifically
the value of true) since "bob" || "fred" will be evaluated to a boolean
expression.

HTH.

-- 
Darryl L. Pierce <mcpierce@gmail.com>
http://mcpierce.multiply.com/
"What do you care what people think, Mr. Feynman?"