If you need to assign a variable based on a conditional, most programmers would do something like this:

result = nil
if condition == true
  result = 1
else
  result = 2
end
puts "The result is {result}."

I usually cringe when people say things like, “Oh, that’s a very C way of doing that”… but in this case, well, that’s a very C way of doing that.

Instead, a rubyist would write:

result = if condition == true
           1
         else
           2
         end
puts "The result is #{result}."