CoffeeScript secrets: or= operator

I’m sure that, like me, you are using this pattern in JavaScript for be sure about the value of a variable or assign one by default:

var helloName = function(name) {
  name = name || 'Kiko';
  console.log('hello' + name + '!');
};

Simple, right? if you don’t provide a default value, the default is the value after || operator, in this case, Kiko.

For do this, in CoffeeScript you can use or= operator that have the same effect in less code.

helloName = (name) ->
  name or= 'Kiko'
  console.log "hello #{name} !"

Just it. It may seem a bit trivial, but can be useful when you need to check a large list of default value (and a little more semantic).

The only consideration is that must not be confused with ?= operator most known as existential operator.

The main difference between the two operator is that or= is based in a short-circuit logic that executed or not its second operand based on the value of the first, meanwhile ?= asks of the truth value checking with null.

Let me show you the difference between a subtle and little example:

a = b = 0

# Because at this moment 0 is false, using || operator we exec the second operand too. Finally the value of a is 1.
a or= 1

# In this case b at this moment is 0, but the result of comparing 0 with null is false and the value of b is 0 at the end.
b ?= 1

(compilation link)

Another point of view is that because ?= uses a condition and or= does not, exists a little difference in terms of CPU cost.

Another thing more: or= have the same behavior in CoffeeScript than ||= in Ruby, an also you can use ||= as or= in coffee :-)