CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrubyruby-on-rails-3activerecord
thank_you
thank_you

Reputation: 11107

Understanding the save method and what it returns

I have a method that contains the following code.

def save_question(content)

  question = Question.new

  question.content = content

  question.save

end

When I run this in an if statement

if save_question(content)
  puts "Everything is cool"
else
  puts "Something went wrong"
end

The method returns "Everything is cool". However if I change the method to this

def save_question(content)

  question = Question.new

  question.content = content

  return false unless question.save

end

Then the if statement will return "Something went wrong". Am I missing something big here? I thought the save method returns true, which is does, but why does the method return false?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1076

Answers (1)

user229044
user229044

Reputation: 239402

You're modifying your method so that it returns false or nil, which is also falsy.

Your last line now reads

return false unless question.save

There is no implicit return true here. If question.save returns true, the return false is never executed, and the expression evaluates to nil.

Think of it this way: What would you expect this version of the function to return?

def save_question(content)
  if !question.save
    return false
  end
end

Upvotes: 6

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