Ruby Language Control Flow begin, end
Example
The begin block is a control structure that groups together multiple statements.
begin
a = 7
b = 6
a * b
end
A begin block will return the value of the last statement in the block. The following example will return 3.
begin
1
2
3
end
The begin block is useful for conditional assignment using the ||= operator where multiple statements may be required to return a result.
circumference ||=
begin
radius = 7
tau = Math::PI * 2
tau * radius
end
It can also be combined with other block structures such as rescue, ensure, while, if, unless, etc to provide greater control of program flow.
Begin blocks are not code blocks, like { ... } or do ... end; they cannot be passed to functions.
