Ruby – Methods

In ruby, methods works the same way as c# methods do.

you can have static and instance methods.

you define methods using the “def” keyword and construct:

def MethodName (OptionalParameters)
   puts OptionalParameter 
end

for example if we have:

$ cat testscript.rb
#!/usr/bin/env ruby

def WelcomeMessage (a_message)
  puts a_message
end

a_string = "Hello World!"
WelcomeMessage a_string

Then we will end up with:

$ ./testscript.rb
Hello World!

Here, the “puts” command is the ruby equivalent of bash’s “echo” command, or powershell’s “write-host” command.

There are a number of other ruby commands that you can use straight from the command line. These commands are available because the kernel module is always automatically loaded.

For example here I have created an .rb file called helloworld2.rb with the following 3 methods:

[ruby]
def simple_welcome
puts "Hello"
end

puts "the simple_welcome method outputs:"
simple_welcome # notice how we call this method like a normal command.

def normal_welcome (name)

# If you want to insert a variable inside double-quotes, then you need to
# encase it in #{…} syntax
puts "Hello #{name}"
end

puts "the normal_welcome method outputs"

normal_welcome ("CodingBee")

def complex_welcome (name1, name2, name3)
puts "Hello #{name1}, #{name2}, and #{name3}"
end

puts "The complex_welcome method outputs"
complex_welcome("Tom", "Jerry", "CodingBee") # Note for some reason you have any whitespace before opening bracket.
[/ruby]

The above code outputs:

C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby1.9.3\bin\ruby.exe -e $stdout.sync=true;$stderr.sync=true;load($0=ARGV.shift) C:/Users/Mir/RailsProjects/spec2xmlproj/helloworld2.rb
the simple_welcome method outputs
Hello
the normal_welcome method outputs
Hello CodingBee
The complex_welcome method outputs
Hello Tom, Jerry, and CodingBee

Any variables set in a method will be confined to that method’s scope. Also a method can’t access any variables outside it’s scope. e.g.:

website_name = "codingbee"
puts website_name

def normal_welcome
  # puts website_name           # this will output an error message, hence commented out.  
  website_name = "google"
  puts website_name
end

normal_welcome

puts website_name

This outputs:

PS C:\Temp\irb> ruby .\scope.rb
codingbee
google
codingbee
PS C:\Temp\irb>

If you want a variable accessible/settable everywhere, then you need to create a “global variable”. global variables are prefixed with the dollar symbol, e.g.:

[ruby]
$website_name = ‘codingbee’
puts $website_name

def normal_welcome

puts $website_name
$website_name = ‘google’
end

normal_welcome

puts $website_name
[/ruby]

The above outputs:

$ ./testscript.rb
codingbee
codingbee
google

Note: if you a method to output an object instead of using “puts” output, then simply specify the object as the last line in the method.