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Ruby

Posted by Joseph Ruben
Joseph Ruben
2,752 Points

method syntax

Ruby's built in methods like .length & .upcase & .capitalize are called like "like this".length where the method comes after. Why when creating your own method it comes after like add(1, 2) apposed to (1, 2).add?

1 Answer

Jeremy Hamilton
Jeremy Hamilton
7,229 Points
Jeremy Hamilton
Jeremy Hamilton
7,229 Points

That is not entirely true. The difference you're looking at are class methods and instance methods. Instance methods are ones that are put up at the base (object) level of the code and class methods are methods that are applied on the class level. An example of a class method is:

class Example
  def Example.class_method
    #This is where the def text goes for example.class_method
  end
end

#after here the example() class can be utilized with the example.class_method class method.

Class methods can not be accessed by other classes or the instances (with few exceptions).

And an example of an instance method (what you're probably thinking of when you generally refer to a method) is as follows:

def Example
  puts "This is an instance method!"
end

TL;DR: You can have methods that work that way too but they only apply to specific classes. The example you mentioned, the .length method is a class method of the String class in the ruby default classes.