Ruby class types and case statements

Question

What is the difference between

case item.class
when MyClass
  # do something here
when Array
  # do something different here
when String
  # do a third thing         


        

Answer 1

You can use:

case item.class.to_s
    when 'MyClass'

...when the following twist is not possible:

case item
    when MyClass

The reason for this is that case uses ===, and the relationship the === operator describes is not commutative. For example, 5 is an Integer, but is Integer a 5? This is how you should think of case/when.