Question : Notation at rhtml file (Ruby on Rails)

Dear experts,

I found several types of different notation for inserting the script inside rhtml file, these are
<%=              %>
<%               -%>
<%                %>

What's the difference the usage among three above?

Thanks & regards.

Answer : Notation at rhtml file (Ruby on Rails)

<%= Time.now %>
will put the current time in the output document.
so <%= .... %> directly generates output

without the "=" sign this construct is used for code that doesn't directly generates output
eg. <% today = Date.today %>

It's <%= today %>
In this example the first expression doesn't generate output, hence the "=" is missing, the second expression creates output
You will also see "=" less constructs like this
<% 5.times do %>
     

You will see 5 paragraphs

<% end %>

an ending -%> just indicates that the following newline should be ignored

cheers

Geert