Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Ruby Ruby Objects and Classes Variables and Methods Variables and Methods

Eylon Cohen
Eylon Cohen
4,779 Points

instance varible

Hii, Didn't understand the methods in the answer:

def initialize (title) @title=title end def title @title end

a. the second line is assigning the global varible to a local variable? what is the importance of @? b. the second methode means: "when calling the method title (Which belongs only to the specific class, I would guess), return the local varible"? should be there a return or something?

Thank you!

class.rb
class Name
  def initialize (title)
    @title=title
  end
  def title 
    @title
  end

  def first_name
    "Metal"
  end

  def last_name
    "Robot"
  end
end

name=Name.new("Dr.")

1 Answer

Christopher McAnally
Christopher McAnally
2,941 Points

The @ means the variable is an "instance" variable. So every time you do:

Name.new 

You will be creating a new Name object and inside that object will be a title field. So in the second method here:

def initialize (title)
    @title=title
  end
  def title 
    @title
  end

You are returning the value of @title, or that specific name object's title. The initialize method sets @title with a starting value.