Question

In SO question 2068165 one answer raised the idea of using something like this:

params[:task][:completed_at] &&= Time.parse(params[:task][:completed_at])

as a DRYer way of saying

params[:task][:completed_at] = Time.parse(params[:task][:completed_at]) if params[:task][:completed_at]

where the params Hash would be coming from a (Rails/ActionView) form.

It’s a kind of corollary to the well-known ||= idiom, setting the value if the LHS is not nil/false.

Is using &&= like this actually a recognised Ruby idiom that I’ve somehow missed or have I just forgotten a more commonly-used idiom? It is getting rather late…

Answer 1

It ought to be. If nothing else, params[:task] is only evaluated once when using the &&= form.

To clarify:

params[:task][:completed_at] = params[:task][:completed_at] && ...

calls [](:task) on params twice, [](:completed_at) and []=(:completed_at) once each on params[:task].

params[:task][:completed_at] &&= ...

calls [](:task) on params once, and its value is stashed away for both the [](:completed_at) and []=(:completed_at) calls.

---

Actual example describing what I’m trying to illustrate (based on Marc-Andre’s example code; much thanks):

class X
  def get
    puts "get"
    @hash ||= {}
  end
end

irb(main):008:0> x = X.new
=> #<X:0x7f43c496b130>
irb(main):009:0> x.get
get
=> {}
irb(main):010:0> x.get[:foo] = 'foo'
get
=> "foo"
irb(main):011:0> x.get[:foo]
get
=> "foo"
irb(main):012:0> x.get[:foo] &&= 'bar'
get
=> "bar"
irb(main):013:0> x.get[:foo] = x.get[:foo] && 'bar'
get
get
=> "bar"

Note that using the “expanded” form causes “get” to be printed out twice, but using the compact form causes it to only be printed once.