Question

If I have the following Ruby code:

def result(b=25)
  puts b
end

then I can simply call result, and 25 will be output. So far, no problem.

But I’d like to call it from another method, like this:

def outer(a,b)
  #...do some stuff with a...
  result(b)
end

and I’d like outer(1,5) to output 5, but outer(1) to simply output 25. In effect, I want to pass “undefined” through to the result method.

Is there any way I can do this? (I can’t simply use def outer(a,b=25), sadly, because the default value for b is actually an instance variable of the class in which result is a method.)

Answer 1

what about this:

def outer(a,b = nil)
  ...do some stuff with a...
  result(*[b].compact)
end

That will call result(b) if b is not nil and result() if b is nil