Feature #6270: add "??a" support for "not defined?(a) or a.nil?"

• Status: Rejected
• Assignee: -
• Target version: 3.0

[jacksonwillis (Jackson Willis)]

It would work like this:

??foo #=> nil

foo = nil

??foo #=> nil

foo = 3

??foo #=> true

Not sure if this would be useful, just a suggestion.

[jacksonwillis (Jackson Willis)]

So ??foo' is basically a macro for not defined?(foo) or foo.nil?'.

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

=begin
This syntax seems too similar to the ?a character string syntax

Currently ?a returns "a", so how would the parsing of this expression change:

true ??a:?b

Which currently returns "a", or:

question_method??a

Which currently parses the same as:

question_method? "a"
=end

[matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)]

• Status changed from Open to Rejected

As Eric pointed out, it's conflicting existing syntax. I don't reject the basic idea (though I am excited), so try again with new syntax if you really want this.

Matz.