options.rb

# Option 1
info = if publication
  "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })"
else
  'N/A'
end

# Option 2
info = case publication
when Publication then puts "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })"
when nil         then puts 'N/A'
end

# Option 3 (brevity)
info = publication ? "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })" : 'N/A'

# Option 4 (readability)
if publication
  info = "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })"
else
  info = 'N/A'
end

# Option 5 (readability, but still scratching that DRY itch)
info = if publication
         "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })"
       else
         'N/A'
       end

I personally stopped using the ternary operator for 2 reasons:

1. I don't actually think it makes things more readable
2. It hides complexity

Re the second reason I have actually seen people using them in nested conditionals pretending that it's a one-liner.

if ...
  ...
else
  publication ? "Title: #{ publication.title } (ID: #{ publication.id })" : 'N/A'
end

Of course the tools are as good as we are but I kind of prefer the explicitly of if/else in most cases.

I will use it in cases like user ? do_some : some_else where the methods/variables in this case are already defined somewhere else.

WDTY?