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Ruby Ruby Basics (Retired) Ruby Methods Methods in Ruby

Gavin Broekema
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Gavin Broekema
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 22,443 Points
Posted by Gavin Broekema
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Gavin Broekema
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 22,443 Points

+ Operator is a method?

So just to clarify... The '+' operator (or any other operator for that matter) is simply a predefined method that Ruby has built in? And not only does the Ruby add method use the '+' operator rather than a method name, but it knows which number we are applying it to as well. Is this correct?

1 Answer

David McCarty
David McCarty
5,214 Points

Yes! Operators are actually method calls in Ruby. This is because, even things like numbers in Ruby are objects with their own methods.

For example, the following will add the number (an object, in ruby) 2 to another number, 1

1 + 2 # = 3

Weirdly enough, this is actually calling the '+()' method of the 1 number object and passing in (2) as the argument.

1.+(2) # = 3

So, yes! These operators are actually method calls in Ruby. This actually allows you to override what these operators do in custom classes.

Even something like = is just a method.

Hope that helps!