Understanding How to Access an Object's Property in Ruby

[mellifluidic]

I'm learning how to program with Ruby and would like some brains to pick.

Here's the context:

class Run_Record
def initialize
@run_number=gets
@time=gets
##in the future this will be more complicated
end
def property(arg)
#?
end
end

new_run=Run_Record.new
p new_run.property(:run_number)

What do I write in #? to get the last line to print the run number it gets from the initiation? It seems like there should be a simple way to do this, something that would work kind of like #{arg} inside of strings. I realize that I can accomplish the ultimate task by using the attr_reader method, but I'm curious about whether one could approach the problem this way.

 

[Future Bruno]

You can use the instance variable @run_number to accomplish this. Inside the property method, you would write:def property(arg) if arg == :run_number @run_number endend

 

[quicknote]

I would suggest using the attr_reader method to access the run_number property in this case. This method is specifically designed for accessing an object's property in Ruby and is considered a best practice. It simplifies the code and makes it more readable. However, if you want to use the #? method, you could write the following code:

def property(arg)
if arg == :run_number
return @run_number
elsif arg == :time
return @Time
else
return "Invalid property"
end
end

This method checks the argument passed in and returns the corresponding instance variable. However, this approach is not recommended as it requires more code and is less efficient. It is always better to use built-in methods like attr_reader to access an object's properties in Ruby.