Question

I have the following code with a small bug in it, the case statement returns the value "other" even though the first "when" statement evaluates true and should return "boats".

I’ve been been looking at this for ages, must be something small.

CATEGORY_CLASSES = {:boats  => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
              :houses => [7, 8, 9, 10],
              :other  => [11,12,13,14,15,16]
             }

category_id = 1

category = case category_id
  when CATEGORY_CLASSES[:boats].include?(category_id); "boats"
  when CATEGORY_CLASSES[:houses].include?(category_id); "houses"
  else "other"
end

Thanks!

Answer 1

A case statement is usually just a shorthand for an if statement. Yours can be rewritten as:

if CATEGORY_CLASSES[:boats].include?(category_id) === category_id
  category = "boats"
elsif CATEGORY_CLASSES[:houses].include?(category_id) === category_id
  category = "houses"
else
  category = "other"
end

When you look at it in this form, you should see the problem clearly; while include? returns a boolean, you’re comparing it against an integer value.