Help refactoring this nasty Ruby if/else statement

Question

So I have this big, hairy if/else statement. I pass a tracking number to it, and then it determines what type of tracking number it is.

How can I simplify this thing? Sp

Answer 1

This method looks like it was written for speed. You can use a minhash as a substitute, but I think the code is fairly clean and doesn't require a refactor. Rubyists tend to be disgusted by needless structure, but oftentimes it's needed to model real-world situations and/or provides a performance boost. The keyword should be needless.