Testing for empty or nil-value string
ruby, ruby-on-rails
Solution
The second clause does not need a `!variable.nil?` check—if evaluation reaches that point, `variable.nil` is guaranteed to be false (because of short-circuiting).
This should be sufficient:
variable = id if variable.nil? || variable.empty?
If you're working with Ruby on Rails, `Object.blank?` solves this exact problem:
An object is blank if it’s false, empty, or a whitespace string. For example, `""`, `" "`, `nil`, `[]`, and `{}` are all blank.
Problem
I'm trying to set a variable conditionally in Ruby. I need to set it if the variable is nil or empty (0 length string). I've come up with the following: ``` variable = id if variable.nil? || (!variable.nil? && variable.empty?) ``` While it works, it doesn't seem very Ruby-like to me. Is the a more succinct way of expressing the above?