# Dynamic string (depending on a variable)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 19, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706 "2009-02-19T01:39:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/1 "2009-02-19T01:39:36Z")

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Hello everyone!

Do you have a better way to do this ?

sentence = “Your ticket has expired since #{nb\_of\_days if nb\_of\_days\<0}  
#{‘days’ if nb\_of\_days\<0} #{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”

My goal is to print something like this : “Your ticket has expired since  
4 days” or “Your ticket has expired since today”

I’ve tried this :

sentence = “Your ticket has expired since #{nb\_of\_days + ‘days’ if  
nb\_of\_days\<0} #{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”

But it doesn’t work!

Thank you for your help 🙂

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/2 "2009-02-19T01:56:39Z")

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Guillaume L. wrote:

> I’ve tried this :
> 
> sentence = “Your ticket has expired since #{nb\_of\_days + ‘days’ if  
> nb\_of\_days\<0} #{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”
> 
> But it doesn’t work!
> 
> Thank you for your help 🙂

I think you want to change that to a greater than…

sentence = “Your ticket has expired since #{nb\_of\_days + ’ days’ if  
nb\_of\_days \> 0}#{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”

And if that message is going to be read in English, then you should  
change it to ‘#{nb\_of\_days} ago’ || ‘today’ without the since. i.e.  
‘Your ticket expired 4 days ago’ or ‘Your ticket expired today’

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/3 "2009-02-19T02:56:19Z")

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I’m sorry for my english ☹  
Thanks for correcting!

But still it doesn’t work :  
sentence = “Your ticket expired #{nb\_of\_days + ’ days ago’ if  
nb\_of\_days \> 0}#{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/4 "2009-02-19T03:27:18Z")

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Thx it works!

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/5 "2009-02-19T03:05:07Z")

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Guillaume L. wrote:

> 

Sorry, I didn’t actually run the code the first time! It was trying to  
use Fixnum’s + method rather than String’s  
This does work:

sentence = “Your ticket expired #{nb\_of\_days.to\_s + ’ days ago’ if  
nb\_of\_days \> 0}#{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}”

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/6 "2009-02-19T04:06:45Z")

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sentence = “Your ticket expired " + (nb\_of\_days\>0? nb\_of\_days.to\_s + "  
days  
ago.” : “today.”)

---

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/7 "2009-02-19T03:36:15Z")

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From: Guillaume L. [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]

# But still it doesn’t work :

# sentence = "Your ticket expired #{nb\_of\_days + ’ days ago’ if

# nb\_of\_days \> 0}#{‘today’ if nb\_of\_days==0}"

my initial suggestion is to always start slowly by splitting the problem  
into small parts…

eg,

> nb\_of\_days=0  
> =\> 0

> time\_phrase = nb\_of\_days==0? “today” : “#{nb\_of\_days} day(s) ago”  
> =\> “today”

> sentence = "Your ticket expired "+time\_phrase  
> =\> “Your ticket expired today”

you can then join them later if you want…

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**Author:** ![loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@loader](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loader)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamic-string-depending-on-a-variable/160706/8 "2009-02-20T15:34:06Z")

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2009/2/19 Dylan E. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> sentence = “Your ticket expired " + (nb\_of\_days\>0? nb\_of\_days.to\_s + " days  
> ago.” : “today.”)

irb(main):009:0\> nb\_of\_days = 0  
=\> 0  
irb(main):010:0\> sentence = 'Your ticket expired ’ \<\< (nb\_of\_days == 0  
? ‘today’ : “#{nb\_of\_days} days ago”) \<\< ‘.’  
=\> “Your ticket expired today.”  
irb(main):011:0\> nb\_of\_days = 5  
=\> 5  
irb(main):012:0\> sentence = 'Your ticket expired ’ \<\< (nb\_of\_days == 0  
? ‘today’ : “#{nb\_of\_days} days ago”) \<\< ‘.’  
=\> “Your ticket expired 5 days ago.”

Or even

15:33:12 Temp$ ruby exp.rb  
Your ticket expired today.  
Your ticket expired yesterday.  
Your ticket expired 2 days ago.  
Your ticket expired 3 days ago.  
Your ticket expired 4 days ago.  
Your ticket expired 5 days ago.  
15:33:14 Temp$ cat exp.rb  
(0…5).each do |nb\_of\_days|  
sentence = 'Your ticket expired ’ \<\<  
case nb\_of\_days  
when 0: ‘today’  
when 1: ‘yesterday’  
else “#{nb\_of\_days} days ago”  
end \<\< ‘.’  
puts sentence  
end  
15:33:19 Temp$

Kind regards

robert