[ruby-core:119392] [Ruby master Feature#20770] A *new* pipe operator proposal

["AlexandreMagro (Alexandre Magro) via ruby-core" <ruby-core@ml.ruby-lang.org>]

Issue #20770 has been updated by AlexandreMagro (Alexandre Magro).


I strongly agree that new additions should be thoroughly evaluated and aligned with the philosophy of the language ("A programmer's best friend"). I've found the discussion so far to be very productive, and my opinion is that:

I don't see `|>` as "an arbitrary combination of symbols". I believe the pipe operator is a well-established concept, predating Ruby itself, and symbolic usage to express certain expressions is already present in the language, such as `&:method_name` instead of `{ |x| x.method_name }`.

----------------------------------------
Feature #20770: A *new* pipe operator proposal
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20770#change-110008

* Author: AlexandreMagro (Alexandre Magro)
* Status: Open
----------------------------------------
Hello,

This is my first contribution here. I have seen previous discussions around introducing a pipe operator, but it seems the community didn't reach a consensus. I would like to revisit this idea with a simpler approach, more of a syntactic sugar that aligns with how other languages implement the pipe operator, but without making significant changes to Ruby's syntax.

Currently, we often write code like this:

```ruby
value = half(square(add(value, 3)))
```

We can achieve the same result using the `then` method:

```ruby
value = value.then { add(_1, 3) }.then { square(_1) }.then { half(_1) }
```

While `then` helps with readability, we can simplify it further using the proposed pipe operator:

```ruby
value = add(value, 3) |> square(_1) |> half(_1)
```

Moreover, with the upcoming `it` feature in Ruby 3.4 (#18980), the code could look even cleaner:

```ruby
value = add(value, 3) |> square(it) |> half(it)
```

This proposal uses the anonymous block argument `(_1)`, and with `it`, it simplifies the code without introducing complex syntax changes. It would allow us to achieve the same results as in other languages that support pipe operators, but in a way that feels natural to Ruby, using existing constructs like `then` underneath.

I believe this operator would enhance code readability and maintainability, especially in cases where multiple operations are chained together.

Thank you for considering this proposal!






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