Simple Ruby 'or' question

Question

In console:

@user.user_type = \"hello\"
@user.user_type == \"hello\"
  true
@user.user_type == (\"hello\" || \"goodbye\")
  false

How do I

Answer 1

["hello", "goodbye"].include? @user.user_type

Answer 2

Enumerable#include? is the idiomatic and simple way to go, but as a side note let me show you a very trivial extension that (I imagine) will please Python fans:

class Object
  def in?(enumerable)
    enumerable.include?(self)
  end
end

2.in? [1, 2, 3]  # true
"bye".in? ["hello", "world"] # false   

Sometimes (most of the time, actually) it's semantically more fitting to ask if an object is inside a collection than the other way around. Now your code would look:

@user.user_type.in? ["hello", "goodbye"]

BTW, I think what you were trying to write was:

@user.user_type == "hello" || @user.user_type == "goodbye"

But we programmers are lazy by nature so better use Enumerable#include? and friends.