'unless' statement with 'else'

Reports unless statements used with else. It is preferable to put the positive branch first.

Example:

# Bad practice
a = 1
unless a > 2
  puts 'a is 2 or less'
else
  puts 'a is greater than 2'
end

A quick-fix is available to convert an unless into if. After the quick-fix is applied, the result looks like this:

# Good practice
a = 1
if a > 2
  puts 'a is greater than 2'
else
  puts 'a is 2 or less'
end

Inspired by 'Ruby Style Guide'

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

RubyUnlessWithElseInspection

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Ruby | Control flow issues

Inspection ID: RubyUnlessWithElseInspection

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection RubyUnlessWithElseInspection

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

RubyMine 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	Qodana for Ruby 2025.2, RubyMine 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025