Classes and Objects

In Ruby, (almost) everything is an object. It is possible to make your own object by defining their class.

class MyClass
end

my_class = MyClass.new

Objects’ attributes and behaviors are defined in classes. In other words, classes are the basic outlines of what an object should be made of and what it should be able to do.

Attributes of an object are tracked by its states while behaviors are what objects are capable of doing.

This is done by the mean of instance variables and instance methods. The former keep track of state and the later keep track of behavior for objects.

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

  def say_name
    puts "My name is #{@name}!"
  end
end

monster = Creature.new('Granork')
monster.say_name  # => My name is Granork

In the example above, the state of the object monster, i.e. its name, is saved in the instance variable @name. Its behavior, here the ability to say its name, is rendered possible by the say_name instance method.