Operator Precedence in Ruby

Examples of Precedence order in ruby

Let’s see some most common examples of Precedence order in ruby.

Boolean operators

Let's start with the basics. Precedence hierarchy for boolean operators.

puts (1 || 2 && nil)
puts (1 or 2 and nil)

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Output:

1
Nil

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The logic appears to be the same, yet the results are not. However, if we look closely, we will see a difference in the order of the calculations. The order in the first case is (1 || (2 && nil)). From 2 && nil, we get nil. Then we have 1 || nil, which equals 1. Our interpreter is far smarter than you may imagined. Because of the || operator. It has always been true when the left-hand side is true, therefore it just verifies the first part of our phrase.

Assignments

This example is related to boolean operators, but also to assignment:

puts (fox = 1 and 2)

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Output: 

2

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Or

fox = 1 && 2
puts fox

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Output: 

2

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Both of these logic formulations yield a truthy outcome of 2. But there is one distinction here. In the first situation, foo = 2, but in the second case, foo equals 1. This is, of course, connected to operator precedence. Because && takes precedence over =.

Methods & boolean operators

We're still in the domain of boolean operators. This example will demonstrate how they act with method calls when no brackets are specified. In Ruby, we can, as we know, omit brackets in some circumstances. However, we must exercise caution when working with boolean at the same time.

# Declare method
def method(char)
puts "My char id #{char}"
end

# Example
method 'a' || 'b'

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Output:

My char id a
nil

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In this case, the first operator || will be called. We'll get an 'a' out of it. This is why we see the sentence "My character id a." However, because the method simply displays the test and does not return anything, we see a nil value at the end. It is essential that our method always returns nil.

Blocks

It's time for blocks. We must remember that blocks with have higher precedence than blocks do... end. This is not explicitly stated in our order table, but there is a short mention about it in the documentation. So, let's have a look at this. We'll make two techniques out of blocks. In the first, we'll call the block with {}, and in the second, we'll call it do... end.

def fox(options = {}, &block)
puts "fox has block: #{block_given?}"
end

def bar(options = {}, &block)
puts "Bar has block: #{block_given?}"
end

fox a: bar { 1 }
fox a: bar do 1 end

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Output:

Bar has block: true
fox has block: false
Bar has block: false
fox has block: true

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In Example 1, the order is as follows: fox(a: (bar {1} )). First, we'll use a block to call the bar method. It will return nil, and we will then invoke method fox with only the hash parameter. It will seem as follows: fox (a: nil). As a result, we don't get a block in method fox.

The order is reversed in the second example: fox(a: bar) do 1 end. It will be even better if it is divided into distinct lines.

Other examples

Let us see some examples.

Example 1

array = []
a = 1
b = 2
array << a + b
puts array

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Output:

3

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This example behaves as expected. it started by adding a and b, and then we add value to the array. If you look at our precedence table, + takes precedence over.

Example 2

a = 1
b = 2
sum = 0
multi = 1

sum += a + b
puts sum

multi *= a * b
puts multi

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Output:

3
2

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Everything will be fine in this case as well. += and *= take precedence over + and *.

Example 3

n = 9
1..n - 1
puts (1..n - 1).to_a

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Output:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

In this example, to_a converts the numbers generated by 1..n-1 into an array

Frequently Asked Questions

What is “eql?” Operator used for?

eql? Return True if the receiver and argument have both the same type and equal values.

What will be the output of the given code? boolean_var = 15 < 16 && 15 < 15; puts boolean_var

False, as 15<16 is true but 15<15 is false hence the overall expression will evaluate as false.

Guess the operator: If Condition is true? Then value X: Otherwise value Y?

The ternary operator first evaluates the expression for a true or false value and then Ternary Operator executes one of the two given statements depending upon the result of the evaluation.

What do you mean by the Symbol in Ruby?

The most basic Ruby object we can make is a symbol. It's nothing more than a name and an internal ID. Symbols are more useful and efficient than strings because they refer to the same object throughout a Ruby program.

Which operator is used to check variable and method are defined or not?

defined? is a special operator that takes the form of a method call to determine whether or not the passed expression is defined.

Conclusion

In this article, we have extensively discussed the concept of the Operator Precedence in Ruby. We started with the introduction of Operator Precedence in Ruby, various Operator Precedence in Ruby, and concluded with examples of Operator Precedence in Ruby.

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