Do you leave parentheses in or out in Ruby?
RubyCoding StyleRuby Problem Overview
When possible.. do you leave parentheses in or out in Ruby?
Ruby Solutions
Solution 1 - Ruby
From the [Elements of Ruby Style][1]
> Ruby allows you to leave out parenthesis, in general, resist this > temptation. > > Parenthesis make the code easier to > follow. General Ruby style is to use > them, except in the following cases: > > * Always leave out empty parentheses > * The parentheses can be left out of a single command that is surrounded by > ERb delimiters -- the ERb markers make > sure the code is still readable > * A line that is a single command and a single simple argument can be > written without the parenthesis. > Personally, I find that I do this less > and less, but it's still perfectly > readable. I tend not to like single > lines in regular ruby code that have > multiple arguments and no parentheses. > * A lot of Ruby-based Domain Specific Languages (such as Rake) don't use > parenthesis to preserve a more natural > language feel to their statements.
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20100420090330/http://www.pathf.com/blogs/2008/10/elements-of-ruby-style/ "Elements of Ruby Style"
Solution 2 - Ruby
I use parens as comments to help the future me... who is likely to have fewer brain cells than the current me :-)
Nothing worse than looking at some code you wrote 2 years ago and misunderstanding it, so that you break something while modifying it.
If parens will save the future me a few minutes (or hours) in the future, I'll put in as many as needed to make the statement crystal clear.
Solution 3 - Ruby
I leave them out when I'm doing DSL-ish stuff, like t.column or has_many in rails. The rest of the time, it generally comes down to clarity, and it's probably an even split.
Solution 4 - Ruby
I guess I do both, but I definitely keep them in if it adds to readability and avoids statements that look ambiguous.
Solution 5 - Ruby
If you mean in function calls, I always put parenthesis because it's always easier to read. If you mean in conditions (if, while) I only put parenthesis when they're necessary.
Solution 6 - Ruby
I try to leave them out, if at all possible. I think it makes code easier to read (generally speaking).
Solution 7 - Ruby
Whichever is more readable usually.
But I always use parentheses when I'm nesting function calls inside other ones' parameters
Solution 8 - Ruby
I tend to leave them out when doing assertions such as assert_equal. Maybe it's to make it domain specific language-like.
Solution 9 - Ruby
If you've been programming for a long time, you'll probably have an "itch" to add parentheses, and in many cases there are good reasons for this.
The code is easier on the eyes though in my opinion, and I haven't run into a problem yet--if you're going to need parentheses, you'll know it beforehand before you have to run into the debugging script.