# Can I return the value of val with: def active=(val)?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-return-the-value-of-val-with-def-active-val/157054>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 6, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-return-the-value-of-val-with-def-active-val/157054 "2009-01-06T22:57:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anita)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-return-the-value-of-val-with-def-active-val/157054/1 "2009-01-06T22:57:57Z")

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How to return the value of val?  
If I write:  
def active=(val)  
if user.active  
val = t  
else  
val = z  
end  
I never saw a method using name=(value), I cannot use active? because  
val needs to be different than true or false.  
Anyone? Have you seen such a method before? where? I need an example

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anita)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-return-the-value-of-val-with-def-active-val/157054/2 "2009-01-07T00:04:18Z")

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Anita A. wrote:

> Anyone? Have you seen such a method before? where? I need an example  
> Have you tried it? It’s easy to find out:

rb(main):009:0\> class Foo  
irb(main):010:1\> def x=(v)  
irb(main):011:2\> puts “Hello from x=!”  
irb(main):012:2\> @x = v  
irb(main):013:2\> v  
irb(main):014:2\> end  
irb(main):015:1\> end  
=\> nil  
irb(main):016:0\> f = Foo.new  
=\> #Foo:0x4ad350  
irb(main):017:0\> f.x = ‘set x to this string’  
Hello from x=!  
=\> “set x to this string”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anita)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-return-the-value-of-val-with-def-active-val/157054/3 "2009-01-07T00:05:28Z")

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On Jan 6, 2009, at 4:58 PM, Anita A. wrote:

> Anyone? Have you seen such a method before? where? I need an example  
> It isn’t clear what you are trying to accomplish. In your example,  
> where are t and z coming from? Are they attributes of the class? Can  
> you show us how you intend to use this method (rather than the  
> definition shown above).

I’m not sure if this is important to your use case, but the return  
value of an assignment method is ignored by Ruby so as to not confuse  
the assignment semantics:

self.active = x

will always evaluate to x regardless of how the method active= is  
written.