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Ruby Ruby Foundations Testing Test Driven Development

Posted by Sebastian Velandia
Sebastian Velandia
24,676 Points

someone explain to me more about $:

Hi I really do not understand what is

$:.unshift File.expand_path(File.dirname(_FILE_) + '/..')

doing, Jason did not say anything useful about it, please can someone explain to me this a little bit?

1 Answer

Milo Winningham
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Milo Winningham
Web Development Techdegree Student 3,317 Points
Milo Winningham
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Milo Winningham
Web Development Techdegree Student 3,317 Points

$: is shorthand for $LOAD_PATH, a global variable that tells Ruby where to look for files when loading code with require. unshift adds to the beginning of the array, and File.expand_path(File.dirname(_FILE_) + '/..') means the parent directory of the current file. All together, this means that when require 'lib/bank_account' is called, Ruby looks in the directory for this project before anywhere else.

Alternatively, you can use Ruby's require_relative to require a file with a path relative to the current file's directory without modifying the load path. In this case, that would be require_relative '../lib/bank_account'.

Sebastian Velandia
Sebastian Velandia
24,676 Points

Amazing answer! I think is easier use require_relative instead. Regards!