Question

In a Rails view, one can use try to output only if there is a value in the database, e.g

@model.try(:date)

And one can chain trys if, for example, the output is needed as a string

@model.try(:date).try(:to_s)

But what if I need to call a scoped format? I’ve tried

@model.try(:date).try(:to_s(:long))
@model.try(:date).try(:to_s).try(:long)

What is the correct syntax for this? And what is a good reference for more explanation?

Thanks

Answer 1

From the fine manual:

try(*a, &b)
[…]
try also accepts arguments and/or a block, for the method it is trying

Person.try(:find, 1)

So I think you want:

@model.try(:date).try(:to_s, :long)

---

This one won’t work:

@model.try(:date).try(:to_s(:long))

because you’re trying to access the :to_s symbol as a method (:to_s(:long)). This one won’t work:

@model.try(:date).try(:to_s).try(:long)

because you’re trying to call the long method on what to_s returns and you probably don’t have a String#long method defined.