Rails - Jul 2006 - nil.- what the heck...

Okay first off here''s the error:
You have a nil object when you didn''t expect it!
You might have expected an instance of Array.
The error occured while evaluating nil.-

Here''s the code in the model:
def highest_bid
 @bid = nil
 @oldbid = 0
  self.bids.each do |bid|
    if @bid == nil
     @bid = bid.max
    else
     if bid.max > @bid
      @oldbid,@bid = @bid,bid.max
     end
   end
 end
@oldbid += 1
@dif = @bid - @oldbid if @oldbid != 0
@bid -= @dif if @oldbid != 0
@bid
end

Two questions:
Is there an eaiser way to do this? What''s wrong with that line?

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

Bill Gates wrote:
> Here''s the code in the model:
> def highest_bid
>  @bid = nil
>  @oldbid = 0
>   self.bids.each do |bid|
>     if @bid == nil
>      @bid = bid.max
>     else
>      if bid.max > @bid
thik you''re missing an @ here, so it''s trying to do nil.max
>       @oldbid,@bid = @bid,bid.max
>      end
>    end
>  end
> @oldbid += 1
> @dif = @bid - @oldbid if @oldbid != 0
> @bid -= @dif if @oldbid != 0
> @bid
> end
> 
> Is there an eaiser way to do this? 
this should do the trick, I think.

def highest_bid
   bids.inject(0){|max, bid| [bid.max, max].max}
end

hth

-- 
R.Livsey
http://livsey.org

Bill Gates wrote:
> Here''s the code in the model:
> def highest_bid
>  @bid = nil
>  @oldbid = 0
>   self.bids.each do |bid|
>     if @bid == nil
>      @bid = bid.max
>     else
>      if bid.max > @bid
think you''re missing an @ here, so it''s trying to do nil.max
>       @oldbid,@bid = @bid,bid.max
>      end
>    end
>  end
> @oldbid += 1
> @dif = @bid - @oldbid if @oldbid != 0
> @bid -= @dif if @oldbid != 0
> @bid
> end
> 
> Is there an eaiser way to do this? 
this should do the trick, I think.

def highest_bid
   bids.inject(0){|max, bid| [bid.max, max].max}
end

hth

-- 
R.Livsey
http://livsey.org