New to ruby, exploring the teranary operator.
This works just as expected:
5==5? "x" : "y" returns "x", as everything in ruby is an expression.
But, this doesn't...
user.birthday? "x" : "y" It's suppose to check if birthday is nil, and return the appropriate string. But it gives me a syntax error:
syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting $end user.birthday? "x" : "y" ^ What's so different about this statement comapred to the other?
Thanks
Methods can and often do end with a question mark in ruby.
user.birthday ? "x" : "y" 
user.birthday? the question mark is part of the method name, so there is not a ternary (?) operator.
user.birthday? "x" : "y" and you get user.birthday?("x" : "y") (which doesn't make any sense at all).In your case user.birthday? ? 'x' : 'y' will do the trick if you want to check if birthday is not nil/false.
ruby is a Object Oriented Programming language so all method definitions are inheritance from a class, and that comes like a "true",try this:
class User
def birthday(confirm) return true end end
us = User.new()
us.birthday("My birthday")
rep= us.birthday("My birthday") ? "x": "y"
puts rep
birthday? is acting like a method instead of a ternary operation.