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Ruby Build an Address Book in Ruby Class Design Address Class: Part 1

Alphonse Cuccurullo
Alphonse Cuccurullo
2,513 Points
Posted by Alphonse Cuccurullo
Alphonse Cuccurullo
2,513 Points

A bit confused on classes. attr reader and writer?

"""""""""""""So just a few questions to get me on the right path with classes. The attr_reader and writers. I have noticed that its a way to rewrite over certain functions in a class but in this video it is used in a different way. Like the accessor holds vaiables or symbols i'm guessing but there being used in a way similar to how we use instance variables in a initialize method. So just wondering whats going on there."""""""""

""""""""""Also i have noticed certain videos that have classes without a initialize method. Can someone give me a point is to why this initialize method is necessary and in what situations? Is it only to have a constructor? if so that is the constructor of importance?""""""""""

1 Answer

Ilya Dolgirev
Ilya Dolgirev
35,375 Points
Ilya Dolgirev
Ilya Dolgirev
35,375 Points

Hi! Regarding classes - all your custom classes inherit from Object class if you don't define your own inheritance instead. You can check it in IRB:

class Person
end

Person.superclass  # => Object

Therefore, if you didn't define your custom initializer, Ruby will lookup to superclass `initialize' method (Object in this case) and will invoke that one - it just creates a blank instance without any instance variables. But If you need to initialize some variables when creating instance of your class you have to define your own initializer.

About attributes methods - it just a handy way(aka 'syntax sugar') to defining methods for getting or setting the values of instance variables. These classes below are identical but look at amount of code we need to write in second case.

# USING SYNTAX SUGAR
class Person
  attr_reader :name
  attr_accessor :hobbies

  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end
end

# NOT USING SYNTAX SUGAR
class Person
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  # This is 'attr_reader' for 'name' instance variable under the hood
  def name
    @name
  end

  # And this is 'attr_accessor' for 'hobbies' instance variable under the hood
  def hobbies
   @hobbies
  end

  def hobbies=(value)
    @hobbies = value
  end
end