Rails - Feb 2006 - Easy way of dealing with nil properties in templates?

Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties in
templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.

<%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
<%= @member.name.to_is %>
<%= "#{@member.name}" %>


csn

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Hmmm. I don''t have much of an improvement. I tend to use

?:

Instead of your methods I would put

<%= @member.name.nil? ? '''' : h(@member.name)
<http://member.name/> %>

And if I see it enough I will move it into a helper.

But I agree, it is tedious.

-Kelly


On 2/6/06, CSN <cool_screen_name90001@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
> Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties in
> templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
>
> <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
>
>
> csn
>
> __________________________________________________
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> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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>
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Yeah. You can also put begin/end around templates,
actions, probably handle a nil exception in
rescue_action_in_public, or even have database
defaults be '''' rather than null, but I''m not keen on
any of those either.

csn

--- Kelly Dwight Felkins <railsinator@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hmmm. I don''t have much of an improvement. I tend to
> use
> 
> ?:
> 
> Instead of your methods I would put
> 
> <%= @member.name.nil? ? '''' : h(@member.name)
> <http://member.name/> %>
> 
> And if I see it enough I will move it into a helper.
> 
> But I agree, it is tedious.
> 
> -Kelly
> 
> 
> On 2/6/06, CSN <cool_screen_name90001@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
> in
> > templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> > it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >
> > <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> > <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> > <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
> >
> >
> > csn
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
> protection around
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> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> >
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 

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You can also do this although I don''t think its any prettier ;)

<%= @member.name rescue nil %>

-Ezra


On Feb 6, 2006, at 7:53 PM, Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
> Hmmm. I don''t have much of an improvement. I tend to use
>
> ?:
>
> Instead of your methods I would put
>
> <%= @member.name.nil? ? '''' : h(@ member.name) %>
>
> And if I see it enough I will move it into a helper.
>
> But I agree, it is tedious.
>
> -Kelly
>
>
> On 2/6/06, CSN < cool_screen_name90001@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties in
> templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
>
> <%= @member.name unless @ member.name.nil? %>
> <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
>
>
> csn
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
ezra@yakima-herald.com
509-577-7732

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This is the one thing I miss about perls Template-Toolkit.  If you 
access an undefined value then nothings prints and you don''t get an 
error.  I wish there was a way in a configuration file to make erb act 
this way.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

CSN wrote:
> Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties in
> templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
>
> <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
>
>
> csn
>   
I''m a bit puzzled by your question: <%= @member.name %> will
produce the
Erb code _erbout.concat((@member.name).to_s) which, since nil.to_s == 
"", will result in "" being appended to _erbout.

Did you mean @member == nil?
Or defined?(@member)==false?
Or @member.has_attribute?("name") == false?

-- stefan

-- 
For rails performance tuning, see: http://railsexpress.de/blog
Subscription: http://railsexpress.de/blog/xml/rss20/feed.xml

Often you have some base record, with an association to another record and
you need an attribute. For example, say you have a project task and you want
to display the name of the person responsible -- you might have:

@task.user.login

If user is undefined then you are trying to do a .login on a nil object.



On 2/7/06, Stefan Kaes <skaes@gmx.net> wrote:
>
> CSN wrote:
> > Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties in
> > templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> > it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >
> > <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> > <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> > <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
> >
> >
> > csn
> >
> I''m a bit puzzled by your question: <%= @member.name %> will
produce the
> Erb code _erbout.concat((@member.name).to_s) which, since nil.to_s =>
"", will result in "" being appended to _erbout.
>
> Did you mean @member == nil?
> Or defined?(@member)==false?
> Or @member.has_attribute?("name") == false?
>
> -- stefan
>
> --
> For rails performance tuning, see: http://railsexpress.de/blog
> Subscription: http://railsexpress.de/blog/xml/rss20/feed.xml
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
> Often you have some base record, with an association to another record 
> and
> you need an attribute. For example, say you have a project task and you 
> want
> to display the name of the person responsible -- you might have:
> 
> @task.user.login
> 
> If user is undefined then you are trying to do a .login on a nil object.
You could override method_missing for NilClass to simply return nil when 
an unknown method is called on nil.

Then something like..

<%= @member.name %>

will do nothing if @member==nil

require ''pp''
class NilClass
	def method_missing(*params)
		return nil
	end
end

pp @member.name   #=> nil if @member.name not defined

This also helps with nested hashes

a= {:test=>"test"}
pp a[:test]        #=> "test"
pp a[:test][:one]  #=> nil
pp a[:one]         #=> nil

This might have all sorts of other unintended side effects... I haven''t
tested it completely.

_Kevin




-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
> Often you have some base record, with an association to another record and
> you need an attribute. For example, say you have a project task and you
want
> to display the name of the person responsible -- you might have:
>
> @task.user.login
>
> If user is undefined then you are trying to do a .login on a nil object.
>   
<%= task.user.login rescue nil %>

seems to do the job.

-- stefan

-- 
For rails performance tuning, see: http://railsexpress.de/blog
Subscription: http://railsexpress.de/blog/xml/rss20/feed.xml

Kevin Olbrich wrote:
> Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
>   
>> Often you have some base record, with an association to another record 
>> and
>> you need an attribute. For example, say you have a project task and you
>> want
>> to display the name of the person responsible -- you might have:
>>
>> @task.user.login
>>
>> If user is undefined then you are trying to do a .login on a nil
object.
>>     
>
> You could override method_missing for NilClass to simply return nil when 
> an unknown method is called on nil.
>   
don''t do this. It screws up nil''s semantics big time.

-- stefan

-- 
For rails performance tuning, see: http://railsexpress.de/blog
Subscription: http://railsexpress.de/blog/xml/rss20/feed.xml

--- Stefan Kaes <skaes@gmx.net> wrote:
> CSN wrote:
> > Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
> in
> > templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> > it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >
> > <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> > <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> > <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
> I''m a bit puzzled by your question: <%= @member.name
> %> will produce the 
> Erb code _erbout.concat((@member.name).to_s) which,
> since nil.to_s == 
> "", will result in "" being appended to _erbout.
That doesn''t seem to be the case for me. ''name'' is
null in the members table, and this causes a nil
error:

<%= @member.name %>

csn

> Did you mean @member == nil?
> Or defined?(@member)==false?
> Or @member.has_attribute?("name") == false?
> 

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> From: charlie bowman <cbowmanschool@...>
> Subject: Re: Easy way of dealing with nil properties
in templates?
> Date: 2006-02-07 15:53:59 GMT (1 hour and 55 minutes
ago)
> 
> This is the one thing I miss about perls
Template-Toolkit.  If you 
> access an undefined value then nothings prints and
you don''t get an 
> error.  I wish there was a way in a configuration
file to make erb act 
> this way.
Yeah, some Rails var like
''convert_nil_properties_to_strings'' would be nice. But
then I''d also want nil METHODS and nil objects to
cause errors.

csn


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> CSN wrote:
> > Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
> in
> > templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> > it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >
> > <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> > <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> > <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
Hmm, maybe a helper function would be better.
Something like (np = nil print):

<%=np @member.name %>

I''m not sure what the ''np'' function would look like.
Anybody?

csn


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Another way to handle this is to check for nil in your controller and create
a proxy object to handle it. You don''t have to save it so it
shouldn''t
change your model.

Bob Silva
http://www.railtie.net/


-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of CSN
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:00 AM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: Re: [Rails] Easy way of dealing with nil properties in templates?
> CSN wrote:
> > Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
> in
> > templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
> > it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >
> > <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> > <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> > <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
Hmm, maybe a helper function would be better.
Something like (np = nil print):

<%=np @member.name %>

I''m not sure what the ''np'' function would look like.
Anybody?

csn


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Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
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Rails mailing list
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http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

On Feb 7, 2006, at 9:59 AM, CSN wrote:
>> CSN wrote:
>>> Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
>> in
>>> templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
>>> it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
>>>
>>> <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
>>> <%= @member.name.to_is %>
>>> <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
>
> Hmm, maybe a helper function would be better.
> Something like (np = nil print):
>
> <%=np @member.name %>
>
> I''m not sure what the ''np'' function would look
like.
> Anybody?
>
> csn
CSN-

	Here is a helper method that you can put in application_helper. It  
will print the default value only if the block results in nil  
otherwise it will print the statement inside the block.


def default(string=nil)
   begin
     yield
   rescue
     string
   end
end

	Then you call it like this:

<%= default("Title Unavailable") { @post.comment.title } %>

	If @post.comment.title throws a nil error, it will return Title  
Unavailable. But if @post.comment.title is not nil it will print its  
contens.

fe:

irb(main):018:0> def default(string=nil)
irb(main):019:1>   begin
irb(main):020:2*     yield
irb(main):021:2>   rescue
irb(main):022:2>     string
irb(main):023:2>   end
irb(main):024:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):025:0> bar = [1,2,3,4]
=> [1, 2, 3, 4]
irb(main):026:0> default("No Bars!") { bar.size }
=> 4
irb(main):027:0> default("No Bars!") { bar.im_with_stupid }
=> "No Bars!"

Cheers-

-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
Yakima Herald-Republic
WebMaster
http://yakimaherald.com
509-577-7732
ezra@yakima-herald.com

Cool :). Small change:

def default(string='''')
   begin
     yield
   rescue
     string
   end
end

That way, this should work too:

<%= default { @post.comment.title } %>


csn



--- Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezra@yakima-herald.com> wrote:
> 
> On Feb 7, 2006, at 9:59 AM, CSN wrote:
> 
> >> CSN wrote:
> >>> Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
> >> in
> >>> templates? All I''m aware of are these methods,
> and
> >>> it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
> >>>
> >>> <%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
> >>> <%= @member.name.to_is %>
> >>> <%= "#{@member.name}" %>
> >
> > Hmm, maybe a helper function would be better.
> > Something like (np = nil print):
> >
> > <%=np @member.name %>
> >
> > I''m not sure what the ''np'' function would
look
> like.
> > Anybody?
> >
> > csn
> 
> CSN-
> 
> 	Here is a helper method that you can put in
> application_helper. It  
> will print the default value only if the block
> results in nil  
> otherwise it will print the statement inside the
> block.
> 
> 
> def default(string=nil)
>    begin
>      yield
>    rescue
>      string
>    end
> end
> 
> 	Then you call it like this:
> 
> <%= default("Title Unavailable") {
> @post.comment.title } %>
> 
> 	If @post.comment.title throws a nil error, it will
> return Title  
> Unavailable. But if @post.comment.title is not nil
> it will print its  
> contens.
> 
> fe:
> 
> irb(main):018:0> def default(string=nil)
> irb(main):019:1>   begin
> irb(main):020:2*     yield
> irb(main):021:2>   rescue
> irb(main):022:2>     string
> irb(main):023:2>   end
> irb(main):024:1> end
> => nil
> irb(main):025:0> bar = [1,2,3,4]
> => [1, 2, 3, 4]
> irb(main):026:0> default("No Bars!") { bar.size }
> => 4
> irb(main):027:0> default("No Bars!") {
> bar.im_with_stupid }
> => "No Bars!"
> 
> Cheers-
> 
> -Ezra Zygmuntowicz
> Yakima Herald-Republic
> WebMaster
> http://yakimaherald.com
> 509-577-7732
> ezra@yakima-herald.com
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 

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CSN wrote:
> Yeah. You can also put begin/end around templates,
> actions, probably handle a nil exception in
> rescue_action_in_public, or even have database
> defaults be '''' rather than null, but I''m not
keen on
> any of those either.
> 
> csn
> 
> --- Kelly Dwight Felkins <railsinator@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Hmmm. I don''t have much of an improvement. I tend to
>>use
>>
>>?:
>>
>>Instead of your methods I would put
>>
>><%= @member.name.nil? ? '''' : h(@member.name)
>><http://member.name/> %>
>>
>>And if I see it enough I will move it into a helper.
>>
>>But I agree, it is tedious.
>>
>>-Kelly
>>
If something can come back nil. and it causes trouble I tend to use
<% $name = (@member.name) ? @member.name:"" %>

then use the ''$name'' instead.  But I have found that most
times RoR
handles the ''nil'' conditions just fine.

>>
>>On 2/6/06, CSN <cool_screen_name90001@yahoo.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>Is there an easy way to deal with nil properties
>>
>>in
>>
>>>templates? All I''m aware of are these methods, and
>>>it''s quite tedious and surely violates DRY.
>>>
>>><%= @member.name unless @member.name.nil? %>
>>><%= @member.name.to_is %>
>>><%= "#{@member.name}" %>
>>>
>>>
>>>csn
>>>
>>>__________________________________________________
>>>Do You Yahoo!?
>>>Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
>>
>>protection around
>>
>>>http://mail.yahoo.com
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Rails mailing list
>>>Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>>>
>>
>>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>
>>Rails mailing list
>>Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>>
>

Neil Dugan wrote :
| If something can come back nil. and it causes trouble I tend to use
| <% $name = (@member.name) ? @member.name:"" %>
| 
| then use the ''$name'' instead.  But I have found that most
times RoR
| handles the ''nil'' conditions just fine.

It can be simplified into:

  <% $name = @member.name || "" %>


-- 
Frederick Ros aka Sleeper -- sleeper@jabber.fr

Use variable names that mean something.
            - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plaugher)
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