Hi -- On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Tom Sawyer wrote: > On Thursday 16 January 2003 11:25 pm, Bulat Ziganshin wrote: > > > > ((not ameth.to_s.empty?) and ...) rescue 0 > > thanks, this seems the most concise answer However, it doesn't do what you originally were doing. false.to_s is "false" (not an empty string), so only testing ameth.to_s.empty? is not the same as testing ameth for truth separately from testing ameth.to_s for emptiness. David -- David Alan Black home: dblack / candle.superlink.net work: blackdav / shu.edu Web: http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav