select

The select expression chooses from a set of blocking operations and proceeds with the branch that becomes available first.

Syntax

The expression starts with the keyword select, followed by a list of one or more when branches. Each branch has a condition and a body, separated by either a statement separator or the keyword then. Optionally, the last branch may be else (without condition). This denotes the select action as non-blocking. The expression closes with an end keyword.

Note

select is similar to a case expression with all branches referring to potentially blocking operations.

Each condition is either a call to a select action or an assignment whose right-hand side is a call to a select action.

select
when foo = foo_channel.receive
  puts foo
when bar = bar_channel.receive?
  puts bar
when baz_channel.send
  exit
when timeout(5.seconds)
  puts "Timeout"
end

Select actions

A select action call calls a method with the implicit suffix _select_action, or _select_action? for a call with ? suffix. This method returns an instance of the select action.

The select expression initiates the select action associated with each branch. If either of them immediately returns, it proceeds with that. Otherwise it waits for completion. As soon as one branch completes, all others are canceled. An else branch completes immediately so there will not be any waiting.

Execution continues in the completed branch. If the branch condition is an assignment, the result of the select call is assigned to the target variable.

Select actions in the standard library

The standard library provides the following select actions:

• Channel#send_select_action
• Channel#receive_select_action
• Channel#receive_select_action?
• ::timeout_select_action:Channel::TimeoutAction-class-method)