• zero_gravitas@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Ruby:

    a || b

    (no return as last line is returned implicitly, no semicolon)

    EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, this is not strictly equivalent, as it will return b if a is false as well as if it’s nil (these are the only two falsy values in Ruby).

    • stebo02@sopuli.xyz
      1·
      11 months ago

      Python:

      return a or b

      i like it because it reads like a sentence so it somewhat makes sense

      and you can make it more comprehensive if you want to:

      return a if a is not None else b

      • Turun@feddit.de
        2·
        11 months ago

        This diverges from the OP code snippets if a has the value False.

      • rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml
        01·
        11 months ago

        For newer python people, they see return a or b and typically think it returns a boolean if either is True. Nope. Returns a if a is truthy and then checks if b is truthy. If neither are truthy, it returns b.

        • Arthur Besse@lemmy.ml
          1·
          11 months ago

          Returns a if a is truthy and then checks if b is truthy. If neither are truthy, it returns b.

          Not quite. If a is not truthy, then the expression a or b will always return b.

          So, there is never any reason to check the truthiness of b.

          you can paste this in your repl to confirm it does not. 
          class C:
 def __repr__(self): return [k for k, v in globals().items() if v is self][0]
 def __bool__(self):
  print(f"{self}.__bool__() was called")
  return False

a, b = C(), C()
print(f"result: {a or b}")
          output 
          a.__bool__() was called
result: b