Ruby If Elsif Else block syntax

Question

What's wrong with this block?

if item.nil?
   found = true
elsif item[:name] == name && item[:category] == category
   found = true
else
   i++
end

When I do syntax checking, I get

syntax error, unexpected keyword_end

but if I delete end then I get

syntax error, unexpected end-of-input

Answer 1

The problem is here:

i++

Ruby doesn't have a ++ operator. What you want is this:

i += 1

I believe the reason for that specific error is that Ruby is interpreting the second + as a unary + operator, i.e. the "positive number sign" (because it's the only thing that makes sense in that context), and so expects the next token to be a number^†, e.g. (parentheses for clarity):

i + (+5)

...but the next token is end, ergo the syntax error.

^†Or something else that responds to the +@ method.