Ruby Operators difference

Question

I want to know what the difference is between = and ||= operator in ruby. In the documentation, it says = %= { /= -= += |= &= >>= <<= = &&= ||= *= are assignment operators .

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 31 '13 at 13:36

1

a ||= b is short for a = a || b

In ruby nil, evaluates to false. So if a is nil or false, a will be assigned b's value

edited Jul 31 '13 at 13:36

Aaron Cronin

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answered Jul 31 '13 at 13:08

Santhosh

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This is wrong. There is no simple expansion of `||=` like there is with `+=` and the others, and *if* you want to find a simple expansion that is at least somewhat close to the actual semantics, it would be `a || a = b`, not `a = a || b`. – Jörg W Mittag Jul 31 '13 at 19:49

score -1 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 31 '13 at 13:07

-1

The variable before ||= will receive the value after the operator if it is != nil.

edited Jul 31 '13 at 13:07

jbr

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answered Jul 31 '13 at 13:04

Luiz E.

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No, it will also perform the assignment if `a` is `false`. – Jörg W Mittag Jul 31 '13 at 19:49

Ruby Operators difference

2 Answers2