# Rails logger doesn't log nil, Ruby logger does

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-logger-doesnt-log-nil-ruby-logger-does/76122>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 16, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-logger-doesnt-log-nil-ruby-logger-does/76122 "2006-11-16T01:53:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![blovett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@blovett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blovett)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-logger-doesnt-log-nil-ruby-logger-does/76122/1 "2006-11-16T01:53:18Z")

</div>

Is there some reason that the Rails logger doesn’t log nil as the string  
“nil”, like the Ruby logger does? It is a bit confusing.

Ruby example:

$ cat log.rb  
require ‘logger’

logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)

logger.info “test”  
logger.info true  
logger.info nil  
logger.info “end test”

$ ruby log.rb  
I, [2006-11-15T16:45:00.348262 #2058] INFO – : test  
I, [2006-11-15T16:45:00.348815 #2058] INFO – : true  
I, [2006-11-15T16:45:00.348917 #2058] INFO – : nil  
I, [2006-11-15T16:45:00.349006 #2058] INFO – : end test

Rails 1.1.6 example:

class AboutController \< ApplicationController

def home  
logger.info “test”  
logger.info true  
logger.info nil  
logger.info “end test”  
end

end

Processing AboutController#home (for 127.0.0.1 at 2006-11-15 16:46:54)  
[GET]  
Session ID: 36e54d45b4ccb93b8d70d1a243526682  
Parameters: {“action”=\>“home”, “controller”=\>“about”}  
test  
true

end test  
Rendering about/home  
Completed in 0.00238 (419 reqs/sec) | Rendering: 0.00092 (38%) | 200 OK  
[http://