Ruby on Rails Syntax <% vs <%=

Question

I am new to ruby and rails altogether. The tutorial I am following doesn't explain the difference between <% and <%= tag. For exmaple:

<% @statuses.each do |status| %>
  <tr>
    <td><%= status.name %></td>
    <td><%= status.content %></td>
    <td><%= link_to 'Show', status %></td>
    <td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_status_path(status) %></td>
    <td><%= link_to 'Destroy', status, method: :delete, data: { confirm: 'Are you sure?' } %></td>
  </tr>
 <% end %>

The loop opens up with just <% and within it the tags open up with <%= .

So what's the difference?

Thanks

[This](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_view_overview.html#erb) — Zabba, Dec 19 '13 at 23:43
This is not specific to Rails, but also the case for other templating languages such as jsp, asp which also use <%= %> and <% %> format. — aarti, Dec 20 '13 at 00:14

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '13 at 23:44

16

<% %> and <%= %> both execute Ruby code.

<% %> will execute Ruby code, but will not render the return value into html. <%= %> will execute Ruby code, and will render the return value into html.

answered Dec 19 '13 at 23:44

Jason Kim

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Ruby on Rails Syntax <% vs <%=

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