Is there a way not to break 3 lines of code into 3 <% %>?

Rails
1

In the view code, say it is

<% @stories.each do |s| %>
<%= “

#{h s.inspect}
” %>
<% end %>

it would be breaking the code into 3 <% %> and <%= %>

is there a way to just have one <% %> or <%= %> so as to keep the code
more flowing together?

2

In the view code, say it is

<% @stories.each do |s| %>
<%= “

#{h s.inspect}
” %>
<% end %>

it would be breaking the code into 3 <% %> and <%= %>

is there a way to just have one <% %> or <%= %> so as to keep the code
more flowing together?

The above is pretty standard (I’d indent it though). You can change the
%> to -%> to kill off new lines in the output.

In the above case you could do this…

<%= @stories.map {|s| content_tag(:div, h(s.inspect)) }.join %>

Not sure that’s more readable or not… I’ll do that sometimes for
things like ‘li’ entries.

-philip

3

Jian L. wrote:

using join looks like will create only n + 1 string objects…

ah, on second thought, doesn’t the join() method actually will create n
string objects too? (the next one longer than a previous one), so it
would be creating 2n string objects too.

4

Philip H. wrote:

In the above case you could do this…

<%= @stories.map {|s| content_tag(:div, h(s.inspect)) }.join %>

i was at first worried that if the print out is long, like a few hundred
lines, then it can create many string objects.

using join looks like will create only n + 1 string objects…

if using inject or something, it might be creating about 2n string
objects, each one longer than the previous ones.

that’s why is it true that
“some text #{ } and then something more #{ }”

is better since it is one string object created while
"some text " + expression + " and then something more " + expression

will create 4 string objects and therefore running slower?

5

Philip H. wrote:

In the view code, say it is

<% @stories.each do |s| %>
<%= “

#{h s.inspect}
” %>
<% end %>

Another option, although probably not necessary in this case, is to move
the code into a view helper.

<%= h story_list(@stories) %>

def story_list(stories)
list = “”
stories.each do |s|
list += content_tag(:div, h(s.inspect))
end
list
end

Yes, in this case the helper is more verbose (maybe there’s a better way
that what I did), but at least your view code is clean and pretty. The
ugliness get move outside the view into the helper.

Another common pattern for a case like you show is to move the code that
actually lists the stories into a partial. Then rendering the partial
from your view becomes one line:

<%= render :partial => @stories %>

6

Robert W. wrote:

Philip H. wrote:
def story_list(stories)
list = “”
stories.each do |s|
list += content_tag(:div, h(s.inspect))
end
list
end

Well this was a bit lame. Use the map & join as shown from previous
posts:

<%= @stories.map {|s| content_tag(:div, h(s.inspect)) }.join %>

I wasn’t thinking.