elsif and else if ?

[Zexion]

What exactly is the difference? I used elsif right now, and it worked fine, and then added some stuff and changed it to else if just for the sake of making it look nicer, imo. The first returned no errors, the second caused the script to hang, and a syntax error requiring an extra end.

So, like I said. What exactly is the difference of elsif and else if?

[Blizzard]

This statement doesn't work in Ruby:

if X
else if Y
else
end

That's because the second "else" is a new block and requires another end to close it. With proper indentation, it would look like this:

if X
else if Y
  else
  end
end

Or:

if X
else
  if Y
  else
  end
end

The difference is that you can easily chain multiple elsifs.

if X
elsif Y
elsif Z
elsif W
elsif U
end

It's easier to overview even though it is the same as this one:

if X
else
  if Y
  else
    if Z
    else
      if W
      else
        if U
        else
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

[Zexion]

Oh okay, so it's just something to make scripting easier?

[Blizzard]

Yeah, pretty much.