Ruby: “if !object.nil?” or “if object”

Question

Are they the same when used in an if/else/end statement? What do you usually do? I\'m wondering if there are any subtle differences or edge cases where ob

Answer 1

There are differences. For example:

false.nil?
# => false

So:

if !false.nil?
  'foo'
end
# => "foo"

if false
  'foo'
end
# => nil

As @tokland suggested, in most cases using !obj.nil? construction is unnecessary.