# Conditionally exiting the current method?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/conditionally-exiting-the-current-method/171996>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 13, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/conditionally-exiting-the-current-method/171996 "2009-07-13T07:28:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonb)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/conditionally-exiting-the-current-method/171996/1 "2009-07-13T07:28:52Z")

</div>

I’m trying to exit a running method after a certain condition is met. I  
have a master method executing sever methods within the same class.

Example:

```
def self.method_1(user)
words = ["hello", "goodbye", "bonjour"]
user.strings.each do |string|
    words.each do |word|
      if string.text.downcase.include? word.downcase
        puts "I found #{word}"
      end
    end
  end

```

end

```
def self.method_2
    put "This is method 2"
end

```

In the above example, how do I stop execution on [method\_1] after [puts  
“I found #{word}”] so it can continue on to [method\_2]?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonb)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 8:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/conditionally-exiting-the-current-method/171996/2 "2009-07-13T08:58:17Z")

</div>

On Jul 12, 2009, at 22:28 , Jason B. wrote:

reformatted for readability:

> def self.method\_2  
> put “This is method 2”  
> end
> 
> In the above example, how do I stop execution on [method\_1] after  
> [puts  
> “I found #{word}”] so it can continue on to [method\_2]?

First off, don’t use #each when you don’t need to. Look at the methods  
available in Enumerable. There is a lot of candy and magic there.  
Further, words is an array, and all the contents are already  
downcased, so you’re doing a lot of extra work where you don’t need  
to. Check it:

> def self.method\_1(user)  
> words = %w(hello goodbye bonjour)  
> word = user.strings.find { |string|  
> words.find { |word| string.text.downcase.include? word }  
> }  
> puts “I found #{word}” if word  
> end

Since words is an array of words and you’re just looking for a match  
of one of those words inside the user strings, use a regexp:

> def self.method\_1 user  
> words = Regexp.union %w(hello goodbye bonjour)  
> word = user.strings.any? { |string| string.text =~ words }  
> puts “I found #{word}” if word  
> end

Depending on how user.strings is composed, it might be cleaner and  
faster to use grep:

> def self.method\_1 user  
> words = user.strings.grep Regexp.union(%w(hello goodbye bonjour))  
> puts “I found #{words.first}” unless words.empty?  
> end

You may have to do some massaging to get it to work with whatever type  
of object user.strings returns, but the idea is the same.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@jasonb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonb)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/conditionally-exiting-the-current-method/171996/3 "2009-07-13T08:35:29Z")

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just call return.

Greetz!