nil

nil value, nil object

The nil value is used as a concept to express the meaning of “the absence of value” or “no object” or “a missing object” or “a lack of an object”.
In other programming languages it is often called null.
Like any other value in Ruby, nil is an object. It is an object of the class NilClass.

myarray = []
myarray[0]    # => nil

nil.class     # => NilClass

nil? method

The nil? method is defined for any object.
All objects except nil return false.
You can use this method to test if an object is nil.

false.nil?   # => false
    0.nil?   # => false
  nil.nil?   # => true

myarray = []
myarray[0] == nil   # => true
myarray[0].nil?     # => true

boolean expressions

Inside a boolean expression nil is treated as false.
In Ruby false and nil are the only values (objectes) to be considered “falsy”. Any other value (object) is considered to be “truthy”.

     !! nil   # => false
not not nil   # => false

myarray = []
myarray[0] ? 'Element at index 0 exists' : 'There is no element at index 0'   # => "There is no element at index 0"