Question

The code that i am trying to shorten in one line:

            if !request.xhr?
                    render_404
                    return
            end

from this function

def request_invite
    render_404 unless request.xhr?

        @invitation = Invite.new(params[:invite])

        if @invitation.save
            @return = { :error => false, :response => "OK" }
        else
            @return = { :error => true, :response => @invitation.errors.full_messages.join("<br />") } 
        end

        render :json => ActiveSupport::JSON.encode( @return )

end

i tried

            render_404 return unless request.xhr?

but i get:

invites_controller.rb:4: void value expressio render_404 return unless request.xhr?

Should i stick with the above code that works or is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

Why do you need the return? The function body does not contains anything else. If it does, please note it.

def request_invite
   render_404 unless request.xhr?
end

The main problem is that you can’t write the two command in one line without separation, it tries to evaluate it, but it is syntactically incorrect.

UPDATE:

def request_invite
    unless request.xhr? then render_404; return; end

    @invitation = Invite.new(params[:invite])

    if @invitation.save
        @return = { :error => false, :response => "OK" }
    else
        @return = { :error => true, :response => @invitation.errors.full_messages.join("<br />") } 
    end

    render :json => ActiveSupport::JSON.encode( @return )

end