# Instance Variable

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 12, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503 "2010-01-12T21:29:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bluehandtalking)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503/1 "2010-01-12T21:29:40Z")

</div>

If you have a class ‘Thing’

does name of instance variable have to be:

@thing = Thing.new

or is

@widget = Thing.new

O.k. to use?

jet

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bluehandtalking)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503/2 "2010-01-12T21:56:02Z")

</div>

Variables can be named whatever you’d like. Feel free to use

@widget = Thing.new

If you feel that ‘widget’ is a good name.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bluehandtalking)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503/3 "2010-01-12T21:59:33Z")

</div>

El Martes, 12 de Enero de 2010, BlueHandTalking  
escribió:\> O.k. to use?  
local\_aaa = Thing.new  
CONSTANT\_BBB = Thing.new  
$global\_ccc = Thing.new  
_a\_n\_y_ = Thing.new  
@attribute\_1 = Thing.new  
@@class\_var2 = Thing.new

_any_ is valid, so any kind of attribute name is also valid.

Again I think you ask this because Rails conventions. If so remember  
please  
that this is a Ruby maillist, and Rails rules/conventions are not a must  
here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bluehandtalking)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503/4 "2010-01-12T22:05:24Z")

</div>

Inaki,

Thanks for the example list.

Actually, I did not ask because it is a Rails thing.

I asked because I needed some fundamental, like very  
basic knowledge about Ruby that I did not understand.

…and I did RTFM before this post.

Thanks again,

Jet

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bluehandtalking](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bluehandtalking)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/instance-variable/181503/5 "2010-01-14T05:30:45Z")

</div>

On 2010-01-12, BlueHandTalking [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> O.k. to use?  
> How far do you think you’d get if you could only use “@fixnum” for  
> numeric  
> values used as instance variables?

For that matter, what name would you give to an instance variable that  
might, like any other variable in the language, hold different types of  
objects in different contexts?

In short, the name is purely up to you.

-s