Add A Basic Case Statement as a Ruby til

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://tinyletter.com/jbranchaud).
 
-_1139 TILs and counting..._
+_1140 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -864,6 +864,7 @@ _1139 TILs and counting..._
 
 ### Ruby
 
+- [A Basic Case Statement](ruby/a-basic-case-statement.md)
 - [A Shorthand For Rerunning Failed Tests With RSpec](ruby/a-shorthand-for-rerunning-failed-tests-with-rspec.md)
 - [Add Comments To Regex With Free-Spacing](ruby/add-comments-to-regex-with-free-spacing.md)
 - [Add Linux As A Bundler Platform](ruby/add-linux-as-a-bundler-platform.md)

ruby/a-basic-case-statement.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# A Basic Case Statement
+
+The syntax for case statements (or switch statements) is a little different for
+each language. I often confuse the Ruby and JavaScript syntax or wonder if I
+need to be using a colon anywhere.
+
+Here is a demonstration of how to write a basic case statement in Ruby.
+
+```ruby
+case ['taco', 'burrito', 'pizza', nil].sample
+when 'taco'
+  puts 'Taco, eh. Carne asada or al pastor?'
+when 'burrito'
+  puts 'Burrito, eh. Want it smothered?'
+when 'pizza'
+  puts 'Pizza, eh. Cheese or pepperoni?'
+else
+  puts 'What do you want to eat?'
+end
+```
+
+This next example demonstrates two things. First, you can make things terser
+with the `then` syntax. Second, the case statement does an implicit return of
+whatever the last value is from the evaluated case. So it can be used as part
+of a variable assignment.
+
+```ruby
+question =
+  case ['taco', 'burrito', 'pizza', nil].sample
+  when 'taco' then 'Taco, eh. Carne asada or al pastor?'
+  when 'burrito' then 'Burrito, eh. Want it smothered?'
+  when 'pizza' then 'Pizza, eh. Cheese or pepperoni?'
+  else 'What do you want to eat?'
+  end
+
+puts question
+```