Is nil the Same as false in Ruby?

In Ruby, nil and false are not the same:

• nil is a special value in Ruby that represents "nothingness" or "absence of a value", such as when a variable has not yet been assigned a value;
• false is a boolean value that represents a negative or failed condition.

Although, nil and false are both considered "falsy" values (meaning that they evaluate to false in a boolean context), still they are not the same thing.

For example, compare the two in a boolean context, where both evaluate to boolean false:

my_obj = nil

if my_obj
  puts "this will not be printed"
else
  puts "this will be printed"
end

#=> "this will be printed"

my_obj = false

if my_obj
  puts "this will not be printed"
else
  puts "this will be printed"
end

#=> "this will be printed"

However, they're two distinct values that do not equal to each other:

puts nil.class.name #=> NilClass
puts false.class.name #=> FalseClass

puts false == nil #=> false

It is important to note that nil and false are not interchangeable. They have different meanings and uses, and should be used appropriately in different contexts.