Coffeescript postfix operator with else - coffeescript

Question

I'm trying to write things as nice and semantic as possible, but I am running into an issue where I'm not sure how to express myself succinctly. I was doing the following in a callback in node:
res.send(500, { error: err }) if err?
res.send(resource) if resource?
res.send 404
return
However, I throw header already sent errors all over the place... Ideally I want to do something like:
res.send(500, { error: err }) if err? else
res.send(resource) if resource? else
res.send 404
return
or
res.send(500, { error: err }) if err?
else res.send(resource) if resource?
else res.send 404
Where I can keep things succinct and easy to follow. Sadly, this causes the compiler to explode. So as a result, unfortunately I'm stuck with stuff like:
if err?
res.send 500, error: err
else
if resource
res.send resource
else
res.send 404
Which doesn't feel that coffee to me, I almost might as well be writing normal javascript.
So I'd appreciate anyone who can help me figure out a nice way to do logic trees like this in a prettier way.

Answer 1

Consider what you're doing. Ultimately, your goal is to send something according to a cascade of rules: Error, Success, or Not Found. Coffeescriptly, I'd end up writing:
res.send.apply null, if err then [500, {error: err}] else if resource then [resource] else [404]
Which, admittedly, is a little long, but that's what we have IDEs for.
[Edit]
r = if err then [500, {error: err}] else if resource then [resource] else [404]
res.send.apply null, r
There, now both lines are less than 80 characters.