CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby
steel
steel

Reputation: 12540

attr_reader only working in some environments

This applies also to attr_writer and attr_accessor.

I've been playing with some simple Ruby code recently and the following snippet does not work in all environments I've run it:

class Human
  attr_reader :name
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end
end

hank = Human.new("Hank")
hank.name

This should output "Hank", which it does in my command line irb. In Textmate2 and Aptana Studio 3, nothing outputs when I run this code. All three work as expected if I explicitly define the reader:

def name
  puts @name
end

When I play in the Aptana terminal and my usual terminal and type:

$ ruby -v

They both appear to use the same version: ruby 2.0.0p451. What's going on?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 34

Answers (1)

Some Guy
Some Guy

Reputation: 1511

attr_reader just doesn't do what you think it does.

try

puts hank.name

rather than

hank.name

and you'll see the output. irb is a special case, it shows you the return value of the last statement executed. ruby on its own won't do that, it only prints things you explicitly tell it to print.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions