From: Ryan King <rking@...>
Date: 2002-09-19T15:21:57+09:00
Subject: Re: If Statement Help

On 2002.09.19, Matthew, Graeme <Graeme.Matthew@mercer.com> wrote:
> if File.name?
> 
> Can someone please explain the ? usage as I have searched all over the
> Pragmatic Programmer pages with no answer. 

That's just a part of the method name.  Run "irb" and paste this
into it:

class Monkey
  def hasFleas?
    true
  end
end
class Rking
  def hasFleas?
    false
  end
end
Monkey.new.hasFleas?
Rking.new.hasFleas?

You will find that Monkeys have fleas while Rking's decidedly do
NOT.

Anyway, the point is: Putting a question mark at the end of a
method name is a custom to imply that the method returns a
boolean.

 - Ryan