Ruby- Beginner ran into unknown syntax

Question

Trying to learn Ruby I ran into this kind of syntax.... Can anyone explain me what it means?

a = nil if b.nonzero?

nonzero? : Returns self if num is not zero, nil otherwise.

And thus does not return a boolean

nil is falsy value, so if b is nonzero, the if condition will evaluate to equivalent to false. Returns self means the value of b will be returned if its non-zero — Wand Maker
– Wand Maker, Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 12:21
Your question is unclear. What specific part of the syntax are you talking about that is unknown to you? There are 5 different syntax elements in the code you posted: an assignment to a local variable, the literal nil, the modifier conditional if, a local variable dereference and a method call. Which one is unknown to you? — Jörg W Mittag
– Jörg W Mittag, Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 12:58

Cereal · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-18 12:35:57Z

3

Values in ruby are truthy and falsey. That is, if a value is not nil, or false, it is true. So if you have a function that returns 1, you can use that in a boolean expression some_function && true would resolve true.

Likewise, if it returned nil, some_function && true would return false.

There's a detailed and in depth explanation here: https://gist.github.com/jfarmer/2647362

answered Dec 18, 2015 at 12:35

Cereal

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