# Attributes in class

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/attributes-in-class/192932>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 8, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/attributes-in-class/192932 "2010-08-08T18:36:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/attributes-in-class/192932/1 "2010-08-08T18:36:56Z")

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Hi  
Please help someone that knows C++ , and my question :  
Does “attribute” in ruby is same as “private member” in c++ ? if no  
please exactly explain me what is the concept of “attribute” in ruby?

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**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/attributes-in-class/192932/2 "2010-08-09T13:38:59Z")

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Amir E. wrote:

> Hi  
> Please help someone that knows C++ , and my question :  
> Does “attribute” in ruby is same as “private member” in c++ ? if no  
> please exactly explain me what is the concept of “attribute” in ruby?

i thing you are talking about rails model  
attribute is a instance variable of that class

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/attributes-in-class/192932/3 "2010-08-09T15:43:24Z")

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Amir E. wrote:

> Hi  
> Please help someone that knows C++ , and my question :  
> Does “attribute” in ruby is same as “private member” in c++ ? if no  
> please exactly explain me what is the concept of “attribute” in ruby?

You’re perhaps thinking of accessor methods. The following code:

class Foo  
attr\_accessor :bar  
end

does effectively the same as this:

class Foo  
def bar  
@bar  
end  
def bar=(val)  
@bar = val  
end  
end

For learning about the basics of Ruby, I strongly recommend the book  
Programming Ruby. The first edition is available to view online for  
free:  
[http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/)

Since you’re already a programmer you should find this very accessible.

HTH,

Brian.