Nils and method chaining

Question

I\'m just breaking into the ruby world and I could use a helping hand.

Suppose b is nil.

I\'d like the following code to return n

Answer 1

One approach is to use inline assignment to local variables:

a && (ab = a.b) && (abcd = ab.c("d")) && abcd.e

For as long a chain as you've got here it isn't very elegant, but for a shorter chain it can be useful:

def date_updated(entry)
  (updated = entry.updated) && updated.content
end