# What do you call this part of an object?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-part-of-an-object/155338>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 10, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-part-of-an-object/155338 "2008-12-10T19:00:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mmcolli00)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-part-of-an-object/155338/1 "2008-12-10T19:00:52Z")

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What do you call this part of an object? @action== positions=0,0  
elements="\n","\n". Thanks in advance.

My Object  
[#\<Diff::LCS::ContextChange:24251690 @action== positions=0,0  
elements="\n","\n"\>

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mmcolli00)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-part-of-an-object/155338/2 "2008-12-11T10:02:50Z")

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Mmcolli00 Mom wrote:

> What do you call this part of an object? @action== positions=0,0  
> elements=“\n”,“\n”. Thanks in advance.

They are instance variables.

class Foo  
attr\_accessor :x, :y  
def initialize(x,y)  
@x = x  
@y = y  
end  
def say\_something  
puts “@x is #{@x} and @y is #{@y}”  
end  
end

f = Foo.new(“hello”, “world”)  
puts f.inspect  
f.say\_something

# Using the accessor methods which attr\_accessor adds

f.x = “goodbye”  
puts f.x  
puts f.y

You really need to understand instance variables, classes and methods if  
you are going to start programming in Ruby. I suggest you start here:  
[http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/)

(If you want a paper or PDF book, there are newer versions of this book  
available from [www.pragprog.com](http://www.pragprog.com))

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**Author:** ![mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mmcolli00](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mmcolli00)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-part-of-an-object/155338/3 "2008-12-11T22:25:25Z")

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Thanks Brian.