Ruby Terms

The creator of Ruby.

A collection of code, including methods and variables called members. The code in a a class sets the rules for objects of the given class.

A variable associated with an instance of a class. Prefixed with a single @ sign.

Another name for Keyword. Words set aside by Ruby and have a special meaning to the Ruby interpreter.

A consice sequence or pattern of special characters used to search for strings.

A sequence of objects, usually characters.

A name that may be assigned a quantity or a value.

A way of representing inclusive and exclusive ranges of objects, usually numbers.

An unordered collection of data where keys and values are mapped.

A data structure containing an ordered list of elements. Starting with an index of Zero.

• Variables passed to a method.
• ie: hello(name) the variable 'name' is an argument

a nameless function always associated with a method call. Contained in a pair of braces {} or do/end

A class derived from a parent or super class

The parent class. A child class is derived from the parent or superclass

A variable whose scope includes the entire program.

• A variable that can be shared between objects of a given class
• Prefixed with two @@ signs.

• Objects that represent real numbers.
• ie: 1.0 12.50

• A named collecion of statements with or without argument, and a return value.
• A member of a class.

Variables and methods are considered members of a class or object.

Keyword. defines method

A programming statement that includes keywords, operators, variables and so forth. Returns a value.

Code, enclosed in {and}, to run before the program runs.

Code enclosed in {and}, to run when the program ends.

Creates and alias for an existing method, operator, or global variable.

Logical operator; same as && exept and has lowered precedence. Compare with ‘or’

Terminates a ‘while’ or ‘until’ loop or a method inside a block.

Compares an expression with a matching ‘when’ clause; closes with ‘end’ see ‘when’

Compares two values.

Not equal.

Assigns value to a variable name. ie name = Chad Jemmett

• A global variable.
• When this precedes a word, it means the word is a global variable.

• A way of grouping together methods, classes and constants. Modules give you 2 major benefits
• They provide a namespace and prevent name clashes
• The implement the mixin facility.

Methods that act like loops

Used to execute the same block of code for a specified number of times.