Rails Syntax Error with `Count`

Question

I have a basic to do app and am trying to show the most recent 4 lists on the homepage, then link to "See X more..." at the bottom. The logic worked perfectly if there were 5 or more lists, but when there were 4 or fewer I would get "See 0 more..." or "See -3 more..." which obviously isn't right, so I added an if statement with the same basic components, but got this very complex syntax error:

syntax error, unexpected ')', expecting keyword_then or ';' or '\n'
...end=( if @my_items.count >= 5 );@output_buffer.safe_append='
...                               ^
/Users/.../app/views/home/index.html.erb:50: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting ')'
'.freeze;           end 
                       ^
/Users/.../app/views/home/index.html.erb:103: syntax error, unexpected keyword_else, expecting ')'
'.freeze; else 
              ^
/Users/.../app/views/home/index.html.erb:122: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting ')'
'.freeze; end 
             ^
/Users/.../app/views/home/index.html.erb:125: syntax error, unexpected keyword_ensure, expecting ')'
/Users/.../app/views/home/index.html.erb:127: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting ')'

Here's the code, with the problematic line indicated:

    <% @top_items.each do |item| %>
      <% if item.user_id == current_user.id %>
      <p>☐ <%= item.name %></p>
      <% end %>
    <% end %>
    <p class="text-center">
      <%= if @my_items.count >= 5 %>   <<<<<<THIS IS THE PROBLEM LINE
        <%= link_to lists_path do %>See <%= @my_items.count.count - 4 %> More...<% end %>
      <% end %>
    </p>

Just to clarify, if I comment out the problem line and it's corresponding `<% end %> the page shows error free. Anyone understand what is going wrong here?

Karl Amort · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-08 19:35:56Z

1

Use <%, not <%=, the statement doesn't return anything.

answered Jun 8, 2016 at 19:35

Karl Amort

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2 Comments

Liz Over a year ago

Holy lord! All that for an =. Thank you!

Dan Over a year ago

The equal sign means you want to "echo" out the result. It's not appropriate on an if statement like you have. Same goes for ends and elses and anything that can't be output (returned).

Leo Correa · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-08 19:35:36Z

0

Can you remove the = from the <%= on <%= if @my_items.count >= 5 %> it may be an issue on how ERB handles conditionals and <%= %> rather than <% %>

answered Jun 8, 2016 at 19:35

Leo Correa

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