catch

catch executes its block. If a throw is executed, Ruby searches up its stack for a catch block with a tag corresponding to the throw's tag. If found, that block is terminated, and catch returns the value given to throw. If throw is not called, the block terminates normally, and the value of catch is the value of the last expression evaluated. catch expressions may be nested, and the throw call need not be in lexical scope.

def routine(n)
  puts n
  throw :done if n <= 0
  routine(n-1)
end

catch(:done) { routine(3) }

produces:

3
2
1
0

when arg is given, catch yields it as is, or when no arg is given, catch assigns a new unique object to throw. this is useful for nested catch. arg can be an arbitrary object, not only Symbol.