What's mean? global variables

ruby-talk
1

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.

2

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 Fugal

···

On 2/23/06, BlueFox <blue_fox@ynmail.com> wrote:

what is mean of(outside of the class define)

def test
   $test ||= Test.new
end

3

Jacob Fugal 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

4

Jacob Fugal 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.