Strange case use
Reading a bit into Rubber code I discovered a strange case use (https://github.com/wr0ngway/rubber/blob/master/lib/rubber/cloud/aws.rb) :
case arch when /i\d86/ then "i386" else arch endSo I wondered why such a code base, with several different authors, would have a line such as this one that is, to my liking, not so Ruby like. Better benchmarks ?
So I ran small benchmarks using Ruby own Benchmark module : https://gist.github.com/4648380 .
Results are interesting :
# real
# case : i486 ( 0.000257)
# if (match): i486 ( 0.000900)
# ? (match) : i486 ( 0.000584)
# if (=~) : i486 ( 0.000220)
# ? (=~) : i486 ( 0.000228)
# real
# case : ia64 ( 0.000246)
# if (match): ia64 ( 0.000305)
# ? (match) : ia64 ( 0.000266)
# if (=~) : ia64 ( 0.000209)
# ? (=~) : ia64 ( 0.000229)So not the benchmarks.
Any ideas ? Because to me the if or even the ternary operator looks way nicer than that case :
case arch when /i\d86/ then "i386" else arch end
# VS
arch =~ (/i\d86/) ? "i386" : archDon't you think ?
Written by Thomas Riboulet
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2 Responses
Readability, no?
@NIA readability is often a subjective topic, still, for something like this particular line most ruby style guides would probably point towards the ternary operator ?: (https://github.com/bbatsov/ruby-style-guide#syntax)
Of course the case line is quite close to pure english I suppose and would be read easily by anyone. Regarding this I do appreciate the transparent regex match the case provides.
