gistfile1.rb

def foo
  # do something here
end

# Is it considered bad practice to assign a variable in a conditional statement?
# Ruby gives me a warning: "warning: found = in conditional, should be =="
if x = foo
  puts x.to_s
end

# Or is this how it should be done:
x = foo
if x
  puts x.to_s
end

If you put an assignment in a conditional like that, then you're doing two things at once. I like to have each line to do one thing at a time. This make my code a lot more readable and clear.

On top of that, the assignment operator looks very similar to the equality comparison operator, making it all even more confusing.