Ruby’s ::new Class

::new is a class method: it creates an instance of the class.

Ruby generally offers two ways to create an object. For example the Array object can be created the following ways:

  • array1 = Array.new (the ::new class method)
  • array2 = [] (a shorthand method)

Functionnally and speed is the same, however Array.new can be called passing in a block, while [] cannot.

Codes behing written for people first, linter such as Rubocop prefers1 [] for creating empty Array and Array.new(n) when creating an Array object, passing in parameter n.

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