Classes

Constructor

A class can have only one constructor, that is a method called initialize. The method is automatically invoked when a new instance of the class is created.

class Customer
  def initialize(name)
     @name = name.capitalize
  end
end

sarah = Customer.new('sarah')
sarah.name #=> 'Sarah'

Creating a class

You can define a new class using the class keyword.

class MyClass
end

Once defined, you can create a new instance using the .new method

somevar = MyClass.new
# => #<MyClass:0x007fe2b8aa4a18>

Access Levels

Ruby has three access levels. They are public, private and protected.

Methods that follow the private or protected keywords are defined as such. Methods that come before these are implicitly public methods.

Public Methods

A public method should describe the behavior of the object being created. These methods can be called from outside the scope of the created object.

class Cat
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def speak
    puts "I'm #{@name} and I'm 2 years old"
  end

  ...
end

new_cat = Cat.new("garfield")
#=> <Cat:0x2321868 @name="garfield">

new_cat.speak
#=> I'm garfield and I'm 2 years old

These methods are public ruby methods, they describe the behavior for initializing a new cat and the behavior of the speak method.

public keyword is unnecessary, but can be used to escape private or protected

def MyClass
  def first_public_method
  end

  private

  def private_method
  end

  public

  def second_public_method
  end
end

Private Methods

Private methods are not accessible from outside of the object. They are used internally by the object. Using the cat example again:

class Cat
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def speak
    age = calculate_cat_age # here we call the private method
    puts "I'm #{@name} and I'm #{age} years old"
  end

  private
     def calculate_cat_age
       2 * 3 - 4
     end
end

my_cat = Cat.new("Bilbo")
my_cat.speak #=> I'm Bilbo and I'm 2 years old
my_cat.calculate_cat_age #=> NoMethodError: private method `calculate_cat_age' called for #<Cat:0x2321868 @name="Bilbo">

As you can see in the example above, the newly created Cat object has access to the calculate_cat_age method internally. We assign the variable age to the result of running the private calculate_cat_age method which prints the name and age of the cat to the console.

When we try and call the calculate_cat_age method from outside the my_cat object, we receive a NoMethodError because it’s private. Get it?

Protected Methods

Protected methods are very similar to private methods. They cannot be accessed outside the instance of object in the same way private methods can’t be. However, using the self ruby method, protected methods can be called within the context of an object of the same type.

class Cat
  def initialize(name, age)
    @name = name
    @age = age
  end

  def speak
    puts "I'm #{@name} and I'm #{@age} years old"
  end

  # this == method allows us to compare two objects own ages.
  # if both Cat's have the same age they will be considered equal.
  def ==(other)
     self.own_age == other.own_age
  end

  protected
     def own_age
        self.age
     end
end

cat1 = Cat.new("ricky", 2)
=> #<Cat:0x007fe2b8aa4a18 @name="ricky", @age=2>

cat2 = Cat.new("lucy", 4)
=> #<Cat:0x008gfb7aa6v67 @name="lucy", @age=4>

cat3 = Cat.new("felix", 2)
=> #<Cat:0x009frbaa8V76 @name="felix", @age=2>

You can see we’ve added an age parameter to the cat class and created three new cat objects with the name and age. We are going to call the own_age protected method to compare the age’s of our cat objects.

cat1 == cat2
=> false

cat1 == cat3
=> true

Look at that, we were able to retrieve cat1’s age using the self.own_age protected method and compare it against cat2’s age by calling cat2.own_age inside of cat1.

Accessing instance variables with getters and setters

We have three methods:

1. attr_reader: used to allow reading the variable outside the class.
2. attr_writer: used to allow modifying the variable outside the class.
3. attr_accessor: combines both methods.

class Cat
  attr_reader :age # you can read the age but you can never change it
  attr_writer :name # you can change name but you are not allowed to read
  attr_accessor :breed # you can both change the breed and read it

  def initialize(name, breed)
    @name = name
    @breed = breed
    @age = 2
  end
  def speak
    puts "I'm #{@name} and I am a #{@breed} cat"
  end
end

my_cat = Cat.new("Banjo", "birman")
# reading values:

my_cat.age  #=> 2
my_cat.breed #=> "birman"
my_cat.name #=> Error

# changing values

my_cat.age = 3 #=> Error
my_cat.breed = "sphynx"
my_cat.name = "Bilbo"

my_cat.speak #=> I'm Bilbo and I am a sphynx cat

Note that the parameters are symbols. this works by creating a method.

class Cat
  attr_accessor :breed
end

Is basically the same as:

class Cat
  def breed
    @breed
  end
  def breed= value
    @breed = value
  end
end

Class Methods types

Classes have 3 types of methods: instance, singleton and class methods.

Instance Methods

These are methods that can be called from an instance of the class.

class Thing
  def somemethod
    puts "something"
  end
end

foo = Thing.new # create an instance of the class
foo.somemethod # => something

Class Method

These are static methods, i.e, they can be invoked on the class, and not on an instantiation of that class.

class Thing
  def Thing.hello(name)
    puts "Hello, #{name}!"
  end
end

It is equivalent to use self in place of the class name. The following code is equivalent to the code above:

class Thing
  def self.hello(name)
    puts "Hello, #{name}!"
  end
end

Invoke the method by writing

Thing.hello("John Doe")  # prints: "Hello, John Doe!"

Singleton Methods

These are only available to specific instances of the class, but not to all.

# create an empty class
class Thing
end

# two instances of the class
thing1 = Thing.new
thing2 = Thing.new

# create a singleton method
def thing1.makestuff
  puts "I belong to thing one"
end

thing1.makestuff # => prints: I belong to thing one
thing2.makestuff # NoMethodError: undefined method `makestuff' for #<Thing>

Both the singleton and class methods are called eigenclasses. Basically, what ruby does is to create an anonymous class that holds such methods so that it won’t interfere with the instances that are created.

Another way of doing this is by the class << constructor. For example:

# a class method (same as the above example)
class Thing
  class << self # the anonymous class
    def hello(name)
      puts "Hello, #{name}!"
    end
  end
end

Thing.hello("sarah") # => Hello, sarah!

# singleton method

class Thing
end

thing1 = Thing.new

class << thing1
  def makestuff
    puts "I belong to thing one"
  end
end

thing1.makestuff # => prints: "I belong to thing one"

Dynamic class creation

Classes can be created dynamically through the use of Class.new.

# create a new class dynamically
MyClass = Class.new

# instantiate an object of type MyClass
my_class = MyClass.new

In the above example, a new class is created and assigned to the constant MyClass. This class can be instantiated and used just like any other class.

The Class.new method accepts a Class which will become the superclass of the dynamically created class.

# dynamically create a class that subclasses another
Staffy = Class.new(Dog)

# instantiate an object of type Staffy
lucky = Staffy.new
lucky.is_a?(Staffy) # true
lucky.is_a?(Dog)    # true

The Class.new method also accepts a block. The context of the block is the newly created class. This allows methods to be defined.

Duck =
  Class.new do
    def quack
      'Quack!!'
    end
  end

# instantiate an object of type Duck
duck = Duck.new
duck.quack # 'Quack!!'

New, allocate, and initialize

In many languages, new instances of a class are created using a special new keyword. In Ruby, new is also used to create instances of a class, but it isn’t a keyword; instead, it’s a static/class method, no different from any other static/class method. The definition is roughly this:

class MyClass
   def self.new(*args)
     obj = allocate
     obj.initialize(*args) # oversimplied; initialize is actually private
     obj
   end
end

allocate performs the real ‘magic’ of creating an uninitialized instance of the class

Note also that the return value of initialize is discarded, and obj is returned instead. This makes it immediately clear why you can code your initialize method without worrying about returning self at the end.

The ‘normal’ new method that all classes get from Class works as above, but it’s possible to redefine it however you like, or to define alternatives that work differently. For example:

class MyClass
  def self.extraNew(*args)
    obj = allocate
    obj.pre_initialize(:foo)
    obj.initialize(*args)
    obj.post_initialize(:bar)
    obj
  end
end

Class and instance variables

There are several special variable types that a class can use for more easily sharing data.

Instance variables, preceded by @. They are useful if you want to use the same variable in different methods.

class Person
  def initialize(name, age)
    my_age = age # local variable, will be destroyed at end of constructor
    @name = name # instance variable, is only destroyed when the object is
  end

  def some_method
    puts "My name is #{@name}." # we can use @name with no problem
  end

  def another_method
    puts "My age is #{my_age}." # this will not work!
  end
end

mhmd = Person.new("Mark", 23)

mhmd.some_method #=> My name is Mark.
mhmd.another_method #=> throws an error

Class variable, preceded by @@. They contain the same values across all instances of a class.

class Person
  @@persons_created = 0 # class variable, available to all objects of this class
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name

    # modification of class variable persists across all objects of this class
    @@persons_created += 1
  end

  def how_many_persons
    puts "persons created so far: #{@@persons_created}"
  end
end

mark = Person.new("Mark")
mark.how_many_persons #=> persons created so far: 1
helen = Person.new("Helen")

mark.how_many_persons #=> persons created so far: 2
helen.how_many_persons #=> persons created so far: 2
# you could either ask mark or helen

Global Variables, preceded by $. These are available anywhere to the program, so make sure to use them wisely.

$total_animals = 0

class Cat
  def initialize
    $total_animals += 1
  end
end

class Dog
  def initialize
    $total_animals += 1
  end
end

bob = Cat.new()
puts $total_animals #=> 1
fred = Dog.new()
puts $total_animals #=> 2

Syntax

• class Name
• #some code describing the class behavior
• end

Remarks

Class names in Ruby are Constants, so the first letter should be a capital.

class Cat # correct
end

class dog # wrong, throws an error
end