Ruby check if nil before calling method

Question

I have a string in Ruby on which I\'m calling the strip method to remove the leading and trailing whitespace. e.g.

s = \"12345 \"
s.strip

H

Answer 1

If you don't mind the extra object being created, either of these work:

"#{s}".strip
s.to_s.strip

Without extra object:

s && s.strip
s.strip if s