Question

I was under the impression that conditions joined with && were executed in sequence, such that the following would return true:

a = "adasd"
> b = a && b.present?
 => false 

Thoughts?

Thanks!
–Peter

• note:

  b = a
  => “adasd”

  b.present?
  => true

Answer 1

When you say this:

b = a && b.present?

You’re declaring b as a local variable but it will be nil until the right side of the assignment is evaluated. In particular, b will be nil when you call present? on it and the conjunction will be false making b false.

When you do this:

a = 'pancakes'
b = a
b.present?

b will have the value 'pancakes' when you call present? on it so you get a true return from b.present?.