Distinguish strings from other datatypes

Question

In an ERB template I want to render a hash into a list of config settings where strings need to be in quotes whereas values of other types don't. The template looks like this:

<%- @myhash.each_pair do |key, val| -%>
<%= key %> = <% if XXXXX %>"<%= val %>"<% else %><%= val %><% end %>
<%- end -%>

But what do I put as the condition (XXXXX)?

Answer 1

Use the is_a? method to check if an object is of a particular type:

<%= key %> = <% if val.is_a? String %>"<%= val %>"<% else %><%= val %><% end %>

The method will return true if the object is of the given type (in this case String) or any class derived from that type.

If you want an exact match (i.e. not match subclasses) use the instance_of? method instead.