A Brief Overview of Ruby

Iterators

  • Iterators make it easier to write code
5.times do
  puts “hello”
end
  • Integers/floats: times, unto, down to, step
  • Range: each, step
  • String: each, each_line, each_byte
  • Array: each, each_index, each_with_index
  • Hash: each, each_key, each_value, each_pair

Methods

  • Values are passed in when they are called, and they are sometimes abbreviated as args
  • Operators are also methods in ruby
  • Syntactic sugar refers to simplifying the code
  • Syntactic vinegar – not so tasty code
  • Methods are all lowercase with underscores

Classes

  • Classes use camel case (they always start with a capital letter): SomeName
  • Classes group the code into discreet, well-categorized areas
  • Can define methods inside a class
class Animal
  def make_noise
    “Moo!”
  end
end
animal.make_noise
  returns “Moo!”
  • make_noise object is created from the class and then we can tell it to do things
  • Objects let us organize code into well-categorized areas
  • Allow complex behaviors using simple statements
  • Instance: an object created from a class
animal = Animal.new
puts animal.make_noice
  • Animal.new is an instance which is an object
  • .new is a class method

Instance Variables

  • Instance variables start with an @ symbol – @variable
  • Instance variables are used within the instance of a class
  • Allow us to keep track of attributes
  • Never have access to instance variables from outside the instant
  • We can access methods within instance, so need to use methods to get instance variable
  • Setter methods – sets a variable equal to value
  • Getter methods – getting that value back

Attribute Methods

  • Methods that we put into classes – takes symbols and turns them into methods
    • attr_reader
    • attr_writer
    • attr_accessor (creates a reader and a writer method)

Additional Terms

  • Instantiated = creating a new instance
  • Class Method – a method that can be called on a class even without an instance of the class
  • Class attributes – store values that apply to the class generally stored in a class variable @@variable
  • Instance variables are only inside the instance
  • Inheritance – inherits the methods and attributes of another class
  • Can only inherit from one super class
  • Modules are wrappers around classes

WDI Day Seventeen: Object-Oriented Programming in Ruby

It’s been an exhausting week packed with tons of assignments, hands-on work, and lectures. Today we continued our work with Ruby, focussing on object-oriented programming. We learned about classes for making different instances, initializing arguments when a new instance is created, and methods.

Later in the afternoon we looked at inheritance and how we can set up classes that inherit methods of other classes. Everything made sense to me, but when it comes to tackling hands-on projects, sometimes I have trouble figuring out where to start. Since we’re covering so much information every day, it’s easy enough to stumble here and there.

After class, I attended a talk held by GA’s JavaScript Guild. The speaker focused on regular expressions, which is a very powerful way to find and replace text in strings. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about these powerful patterns that I’ve somehow managed to use in a couple of my projects thus far. Now that I understand them a little better, I’m looking forward to playing around with them even more.

Resources