What is the difference between “if” statements with “then” at the end?

Question

What\'s the difference between these two Ruby if statements when we put a then at the end of the if statement?

if(val          


        

Answer 1

The then is only required if you want to write the if expression on one line:

if val == "hi" then something.meth("hello")
else something.meth("right")
end

That brackets in your example are not significant, you can skip them in either case.

See the Pickaxe Book for details.