Ruby – Checking if a variable is not nil and not zero in ruby

ruby

I am using the following code to check if a variable is not nil and not zero

if(discount != nil && discount != 0) 
  ...
end

Is there a better way to do this?

unless discount.nil? || discount == 0
  # ...
end

Objects have a nil? method.

if val.nil? || val == 0
  [do something]
end

Or, for just one instruction:

[do something] if val.nil? || val == 0

When I'm not worried about performance, I'll often use this:

if my_string.to_s == ''
  # It's nil or empty
end

There are various variations, of course...

if my_string.to_s.strip.length == 0
  # It's nil, empty, or just whitespace
end