This content has been automatically translated from Ukrainian.
In Ruby, there are two logical "and" operators - && and and. At first glance, they seem similar, but they have different execution priorities.
&& has a high priority, so it is usually used for logical expressions, conditions, and loops.
and has a low priority, so it is often used for control flow when several actions need to be executed sequentially.
Example with &&:
result = true && false # first evaluates true && false => false # result => false
Example with and:
result = true and false # Ruby reads as (result = true) and false # first, the assignment result = true is executed # then the logical and with false is executed, but this does not change the variable result result # => true
When and what to use?
- Use && for logic and conditions.
- Use and for sequential execution of actions (control flow), for example return true and log_success. But it's better not to do this. Because it can be a bit confusing.
The priority determines the order of evaluation, not the result of the logical operation itself.
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