# Trouble with if statement in helper function **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 8, 2008, 8:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859 "2008-06-08T08:40:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 8:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/1 "2008-06-08T08:40:57Z")
I have a helper function that returns a bunch of html but i’m having trouble with this if statement ``` ret += current_id.to_s + '
' ret += root_id.to_s if current_id == root_id then ret += 'Total Time: ' + total_time.to_s + ' minute(s)
' end ``` the values for current\_id and root\_id are valid and i can see them output to the screen but for some reason i’m getting the error: can’t convert nil into String am i using incorrect syntax here? if i remove the if statement the code works fine. thanks in advance!! ---
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/2 "2008-06-08T14:52:30Z")
Is total\_time valid too? It’s the only thing that gets converted to string within the if statement… ---
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/3 "2008-06-08T14:57:21Z")
Thorsten M. wrote: > Is total\_time valid too? > It’s the only thing that gets converted to string within the if > statement… yea, if i comment out the if and end statement the program works fine, but it prints total time every time: ``` ret += current_id.to_s + '
' ret += root_id.to_s # if current_id == root_id ret += 'Total Time: ' + total_time.to_s + ' minute(s)
' # end ``` ---
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/4 "2008-06-08T15:07:14Z")
You didn’t post all your code or the error message, so I can only guess… The if statement looks ok since the assigned var is name ret, I guess that’s what your helper returns Do you have an explicit if statement at end of the method? Or does more code come? Otherwise: If the if statement fails for current\_id != root\_it, your method may return nil (result of if) and the following code may interpret that and fail using it as string ---
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/5 "2008-06-08T15:42:34Z")
yes, that’s obvious. The last lines are the if statement. (As long as it fails). This will return nil and then the recursive call in line 55 fails. (Otherwise it returns ret and is ok) Since it’s not sure, that ret contains anything at all, something like that should work: ret ||= “” as last line. If ret contains something, that’ll be returned, if not it’ll return an empty string. This would make sure, that the method returns a string in any case. ---
**Author:** ![skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skirkpatrick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/skirkpatrick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-if-statement-in-helper-function/139859/6 "2008-06-08T15:22:10Z")
Thorsten M. wrote: > You didn’t post all your code or the error message, so I can only > guess… > The if statement looks ok > since the assigned var is name ret, I guess that’s what your helper > returns > > Do you have an explicit if statement at end of the method? > Or does more code come? > > Otherwise: > If the if statement fails for current\_id != root\_it, > your method may return nil (result of if) > and the following code may interpret that and fail using it as string yea i wonder if it it is trying to put the result from the if statement as part of the return value. i’ll post the rest of the helper function but i’ll warn you it’s not pretty…it does work though…suprisingly. here is a link to the page so you can see what it does without the if statement if you are interested: [http://wl-dev.kuliksco.com/manufactures/247](http://wl-dev.kuliksco.com/manufactures/247) from my view i am calling: \<%= tree\_ul(@manufacture, 1, 1, @manufacture.make\_time, @manufacture.id.to\_i, @manufacture.id.to\_i) %\> and in my helper here is the code: def tree\_ul(manufacture, total\_num, make\_num, total\_time, root\_id, current\_id) ``` if manufacture.manufacture_materials.length > 0 ret = '