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Feature #17773

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Alias `Numeric#zero?` and `Float#zero?` as `Numeric#empty?` and `Float#empty?`

Added by sawa (Tsuyoshi Sawada) almost 3 years ago. Updated almost 3 years ago.

Status:
Open
Assignee:
-
Target version:
-
[ruby-core:103162]

Description

When dealing with user input fields as in web applications, there are typical values that we want to consider as the default and/or absence of user input. For string/text inputs, list items, and attributes, we have String#empty?, Array#empty?, and Hash#empty? respectively, which seem to correspond to those cases. As for numerics, there are Numeric#zero? and Float#zero?.

However, there is no single term that covers all these cases. In a routine to check through the fields whether there is user input, we have to selectively use empty? or zero? depending on the type of the input field.

Many programming languages other than Ruby typically consider these values as falsy with respect to logical calculation. Ruby handles only nil and false as falsy, and that has clear advantages in many aspects, but with the cost of losing a simple way to handle these default values.

I propose to alias Numeric#zero? as Numeric#empty? and Float#zero? as Float#empty? so that we can simply use empty?. At first, calling zero as empty might sound strange, but at least for non-negative integers, set theoretic definitions usually define zero as the empty set, so it is not that strange after all.

Ruby on Rails' blank? is conceptually similar to this, but 0.blank? returns false, so it is a different concept.

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