# Newbie class question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-class-question/53990>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 19, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-class-question/53990 "2006-02-19T16:27:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![todd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@todd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/todd)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-class-question/53990/1 "2006-02-19T16:27:09Z")

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Hi

I’ve been trying to get my head around the rules for making classes. One  
question I have is whether a class must be initialized. Or can a class  
just hold data without taking an argument.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![todd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@todd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/todd)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-class-question/53990/2 "2006-02-19T17:16:20Z")

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An initialised class (if I guess your meaning correctly) is called an  
object or an instance.

Classes don’t have to be initialised to hold data or methods, but from  
a design perspective class methods and instance methods are used for  
different things. A class is usually a generic category, and an  
instance of that class represents a particular object in that category.  
For instance, “Car” might be a class, and “my VW Jetta” would be an  
instance of it. Generally, most methods will likely be instance  
methods, since it’s instances that you’re usually interested in.

Post an example of what you’re trying to do - you’ll likely get more  
concrete advice.