in test.rb
class Test
def greeting
“hello world!”
end
end
def test
$test ||= Test.new
end
and somewhere
puts test.greeting
what is mean of(outside of the class define)
def test
$test ||= Test.new
end
and where can find any document?
thanks.
On 2/23/06, BlueFox [email protected] wrote:
what is mean of(outside of the class define)
def test
$test ||= Test.new
end
The keyword def, as you already know, begins a method definition. When
the method definition occurs outside the scope of any class, the
current ‘self’ is the ‘main’ object. Defining a method on ‘main’
through some black magic, actually creates the method as an instance
method of Object. As such, the method is available to all instances of
Object – that is, everything. This way, the method can be called
without a receiver in any context and generally have the same behavior
(modulo instance variables, but if you’re using instance variables in
top-level methods/procedures, you’re asking for trouble). This makes
the method, in effect, a procedure.
$test is a global variable. Thats important in this case for scope –
$test continues to exist and retain its value between invocations of
test. The ||= idiom is one commonly found in ruby. It’s similar to +=
in that it is simply short hand for “$test = $test || Test.new”. $test
starts with a value of nil, and the first time test is run (unless you
manually set $test beforehand), $test is initialized to a new instance
of Test, since “(nil || anything) == anything”. On subsequent runs,
$test retains its value. From this behavior, ||= can be thought of as
a “default initializer” operator.
Does that answer your questions?
Jacob F.
Jacob F. wrote:
$test is a global variable. Thats important in this case for scope –
$test continues to exist and retain its value between invocations of
test. The ||= idiom is one commonly found in ruby. It’s similar to +=
in that it is simply short hand for “$test = $test || Test.new”. $test
starts with a value of nil, and the first time test is run (unless you
manually set $test beforehand), $test is initialized to a new instance
of Test, since “(nil || anything) == anything”. On subsequent runs,
$test retains its value. From this behavior, ||= can be thought of as
a “default initializer” operator.
Jacob,
So is this a shortcut for creating a singleton in Ruby? Albeit a
slightly different one I would guess, using a global variable to store a
single instance rather than using a class method to instantiate a new or
return the existing instance.
Thanks…
-dave
Oh! the test function just an another way to access the global variable
$test?
yesterday i forgot that we can define a fuction outside classes(unlike
java) and function’s return value is the last statement’s return value?
Thanks very much.
leo.