What's a more idiomatic Ruby way of writing this?

Question

  if params[:parent_type] == "Order"
    parent_id = nil
  else
    parent_id = params[:parent_id]
  end

Would a Ruby person laugh at me for writing it this way? It doesn't seem particularly concise like some Ruby code I've seen.

Answer 1

Nothing really wrong with it as-is, but can be made more concise:

parent_id = (params[:parent_type] == "Order") ? nil : params[:parent_id]

Alternatively:

parent_id = if (params[:parent_type] == "Order")
    nil
else
    params[:parent_id]
end

Answer 2

I think it's fine the way it is. I'm a Ruby person, and I wouldn't laugh at you for writing it that way. It's clear what the code does and there's no real code duplication, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 3

That looks perfectly reasonable to me. You could move the assignment in front of the if ( parent_id = if params...) or use the ternary, but I don't think the result would look better.

If parent_id is nil or undefined before that line you can simply write:

parent_id = params[:parent_id] unless params[:parent_type] == "Order"

Answer 4

I like:

parent_id = (params[:parent_type] == "Order" ? nil : params[:parent_id])

Answer 5

One more variation:

parent_id = (params[:parent_type] == "Order") && params[:parent_id]