redirect_to != return

Question

I'm looking for some clarification regarding the behaviour of redirect_to.

I have this code:

if some_condition    redirect_to(path_one) end  redirect_to(path_two) 

If some_condition == true I get this error:

Render and/or redirect were called multiple times in this action. Please note that you may only call render OR redirect, and at most once per action.

It seems that the method continues to execute after the redirect_to call. Do I need to write code like this:

if some_condition    redirect_to(path_one)    return end  redirect_to(path_two) 

Answer 1

Yes, you need to return from method when doing redirect. It actually only adds appropriate headers for the response object.

You can write more rubyish way:

if some_condition     return redirect_to(path_one) end  redirect_to(path_two) 

or other way:

return redirect_to(some_condition ? path_one : path_two) 

or another way:

redirect_path = path_one  if some_condition     redirect_path = path_two end  redirect_to redirect_path 

Answer 2

From http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Base.html:

If you need to redirect on the condition of something, then be sure to add “and return” to halt execution.

def do_something   redirect_to(:action => "elsewhere") and return if monkeys.nil?   render :action => "overthere" # won't be called if monkeys is nil end