From: David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Date: 2002-07-08T03:06:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Pre-RCR... nil.empty?

Hi --

On Mon, 8 Jul 2002, Avi Bryant wrote:

> Dave Thomas <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote in message news:<m24rfcb5e7.fsf@zip.local.thomases.com>...
> > Working with CGI forms and databases, it's something of a pain having
> > to do
> >
> >    string = cgi['field'][0]
> >
> >    if string.nil? || string.empty?
> >       error "Please specify a value for 'field'"
> >    end
> >
> >    etc etc...
> >
> > Would it be silly to have a predefined method:
> >
> >    def nil.empty?
> >       true
> >    end
>
> Since there seems to be some opposition to this, how about
>
> def nil.empty_or_nil?
>   true
> end
>
> class Object
>   def empty_or_nil?
>     empty?
>   end
> end

Interesting that this discussion sort of swirls around an old issue --
namely, the fact that in Ruby empty strings are true.  (I'm not
adducing this as evidence that they should be false -- just observing
that that's the territory we seem to be on.)

I keep thinking it feels like there's some way that to_str could play
a role here... but haven't thought of it yet.


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav