[greenpeas]

> > `do_thing if other_thing`

> Yeah I don't get why you would deliberately make the flow control confusing and backwards like that.

I like to use this as function guards, where the first lines in the body of a function can be:

  return xxx if some_edge_condition?

example: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/f95c0b7e96eb36bc3efc0c5b...

[cycomachead]

Guard clauses are great, and when used appropriately clean things up. This is pretty much my only use of the pattern.

(Ending boolean-returning methods with a ? is also a great convention in ruby.)

[bobbylarrybobby]

if some_edge_condition: return x

[msbarnett]

I’ve written both professionally and personally found Python makes it harder to see the early out, which makes it less valuable/explicit as a guard.

The Ruby pattern is clear up front on what it is rather than being a bag of conditions that you have to get to the end of to discover what they trigger.