noob question

[rjtucke]

I'm learning Ruby and was wondering if there's an elegant way to do the
following:
(Program is to print the 99 bottles of beer song, with correct english)
if num != 1
word = "bottle"
else
word = "bottles"
end

I tried to do this via word = "bottle" + ("s" unless num == 1),
but it complains about concatenating "bottle" with nil.

Thanks,
rjtucke

[Ryan Eibling]

How about word = "bottle" + (num == 1 ? "" : "s")
There's probably something better but that takes care of the nil thing.

[rjtucke]

sweet. Thanks

[Sri Sankaran]

Here's one way to skin this cat:

word = (num == 1) ? "bottle" : "bottles"

Sri
"rjtucke" <rjt...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1149710220.0...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

[Daniel Schierbeck]

rjtucke wrote:
> if num != 1
> word = "bottle"
> else
> word = "bottles"
> end

word = "bottle" << (num == 1 ? "" : "s")

Cheers,
Daniel

[Martin Nemzow]

Just use the built-in Ruby/Rails plural method if your bottle count > 1
Don't reinvent the wheel.

"rjtucke" <rjt...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1149710220.0...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

[Karl von Laudermann]

Martin Nemzow wrote:
> Just use the built-in Ruby/Rails plural method if your bottle count > 1
> Don't reinvent the wheel.

Rails is not "built-in" to Ruby. It's a separate third party web
application framework. Downloading and installing a whole web
application framework just to pluralize a word for a "99 Bottles of
Beer" program would be beyond ludicrous.