Question

  if !row[0].include? 'Changed database' || !row[0].starts_with? '---' || !row[0].include? "rows affected" || !row[0].nil? || !row[0] == ""

if i do

if !row[0].include? 'Changed database'

it works well but if i do multiple conditions then it fails on this error

SyntaxError: /Users/tamer/Sites/active/app/models/account.rb:42: syntax error, unexpected tSTRING_BEG, expecting kTHEN or ':' or '\n' or ';'
 ...ase' || !row[0].starts_with? '---' || !row[0].include? "rows...

Answer 1

Sometimes the parser can’t guess at how you’re grouping arguments.

In your example, it’s interpreting 'Changed database' || !row[0].starts_with? as the argument passed to include?, and is choking when it comes across the next token, '---', which then makes no sense.

Adding parentheses to clear up the ambiguity will solve the problem, e.g.:

if !row[0].include?('Changed database') || !row[0].starts_with?('---') || !row[0].include?("rows affected") || !row[0].nil? || !row[0] == ""

If you really, really hate parentheses, you could also switch to using or instead of ||, which has a weaker precedence and will be applied later, e.g.:

if !row[0].include? 'Changed database' or !row[0].starts_with? '---' or !row[0].include? "rows affected" or !row[0].nil? or !row[0] == ""