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Ruby Ruby Loops Build a Simple Contact List Part 2: Adding Contacts

Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points
Posted by Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points

Using OR with while statements

Is it possible to use OR with while statements? I tried to do it like this :

While answer.downcase != "no" || answer.downcase != "n"

It didn't work. IS there some other way, or am I doing something wrong?

2 Answers

Jeff Jacobson-Swartfager
Jeff Jacobson-Swartfager
15,419 Points
Jeff Jacobson-Swartfager
Jeff Jacobson-Swartfager
15,419 Points

One way to do this would be to use parentheses:

while (answer.downcase != "no" || answer.downcase != "n") do
  puts "I'm still going!"
end
jb30
jb30
44,807 Points
jb30
jb30
44,807 Points

The expression answer.downcase != "no" || answer.downcase != "n" is always true. If answer.downcase is "no", then answer.downcase != "n" is true, so the entire expression is true, and the while loop will continue. If answer.downcase is "n", then answer.downcase != "no" is true, so the entire expression is true, and the while loop will continue. If answer.downcase is not "n" and not "no", then both answer.downcase != "no" and answer.downcase != "n" are true, so the while loop will continue. For the expression to be false, answer.downcase == "no" and answer.downcase == "n" must both true at the same time. Since "no" is not equal to "n", the expression will always be true.

You could try while not (answer.downcase == "no" || answer.downcase == "n").