Thursday 29 December 2016

How to write a switch statement in Ruby



How do I write a switch statement in Ruby?


Answer



Ruby uses the case expression instead.



case x

when 1..5
"It's between 1 and 5"
when 6
"It's 6"
when "foo", "bar"
"It's either foo or bar"
when String
"You passed a string"
else
"You gave me #{x} -- I have no idea what to do with that."

end


Ruby compares the object in the when clause with the object in the case clause using the === operator. For example, 1..5 === x, and not x === 1..5.



This allows for sophisticated when clauses as seen above. Ranges, classes and all sorts of things can be tested for rather than just equality.



Unlike switch statements in many other languages, Ruby’s case does not have fall-through, so there is no need to end each when with a break. You can also specify multiple matches in a single when clause like when "foo", "bar".


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