Question

Would you prefer this:

def add(a, b)
  puts "ADDING #{a} + #{b}"
  return a + b
end

over this?

def add(a, b)
  puts "ADDING #{a} + #{b}"
  a + b
end

Answer 1

It’s The Ruby Way™ to not include the return statement unless it’s absolutely required.

I’m sure there’s better examples, but here’s a simple one.

def divide a, b
    return false if b == 0
    a/b
end

---

It’s worth noting that Ruby provides means to optionally ignore a lot of syntax. () are optional unless you’re nesting them. {} can be omitted in many cases too.

func(5, 5, {:hello => 'world'})
# is the same as
func 5, 5, hello: 'world'

You’ll learn a lot more shortcuts as you go.