Objects in Ruby programming language

In this part of the Ruby tutorial, we will briefly cover the concept of objects in Ruby language. We will learn more about objects in OOP chapter. I have decided to write this preliminary chapter about objects, because many Ruby features might be confusing to newcomers. Especially if they already know any other programming language.
Ruby is an object-oriented programming language. This means, than in Ruby programs we work with objects. From a language programmer's point of view a Ruby program is a stream of tokens. These tokens are Ruby keywords, operators, various delimiters or literals. From a semantic point of view a Ruby program consists of objects. These objects are created and modified during the lifetime of a Ruby script.
There are two kinds of objects. Built-in objects and custom objects. Built-in objects are predefined objects that all programmers can use. They are available with the core of the Ruby language or from various libraries. Custom objects are created by application programmers for their application domains.
All objects must be created, before we can work with them. We often use a term object instantiation. It is a synonym for object creation. Objects consists of two basic things. Data and methods. Data is a static part of an object. Methods form a dynamic part of an object. Objects are modified and communicate with each other via methods.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

puts "Ruby language"

We have a simple Ruby script. If we are familiar with some procedural language, like Pascal or C, we might see a keyword or a function named puts and its parameter "Ruby language", which is a string.
Ruby is a pure object-oriented langauge and things are a bit different. The "Ruby language" is a indeed a string, which is a common data type. But it is also an object. And as with all objects, we can call its methods. This is a bit different from other languages. For example, this would not be possible in Python programming language. The puts is a method. A method is a function defined in an object. Methods do not exist on their own. In fact, the puts method is a part of the Kernel module.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

Kernel.puts "Ruby language"
Kernel.puts "Ruby language".size

In the above script, we have two code lines.

Kernel.puts "Ruby language"

In the first example, we were calling the puts method without the Kernelpart, which may be omitted. This saves time and some typing. It is in fact a shorthand call for the Kernel.puts formal call. In C# we have Console.writeln and in Java System.println. The idea is the same. Methods must be associated with some object. Or a class, in case of class methods. But in the case of Java and C# the first parts, the Console and the System may not be omitted.

Kernel.puts "Ruby language".size

In this code line, we print the size of the "Ruby language" string to the console. This might be confusing to many programmers, that come from other languages. In other languages, a string is a primitive data type and cannot be modified. And does not have its own methods. In Ruby, a string is a full object and has its own methods. The size method is one of them. It returns the size of the string in characters.

$ ./simple2.rb
Ruby language
13

Output of the code example.

---

In the following example, we will look at an integer number. Similarly to a string, an integer value is a Ruby object too.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

puts 6.object_id

puts 6.even?
puts 6.zero?

puts 6.class

In the example, we have an integer 6. We call a few methods on the number.

puts 6.object_id

The 6 is an object. The object_id is a method. The method returns an id associated to the object. Each object has an id. If we call a method on an object, we must always put a dot character between the two.

puts 6.even?
puts 6.zero?

Here we call two methods on the 6 object. The even? returns true if the number is even. And the zero? method returns true, if the number is equal to zero. Note that these two methods end with a question mark. This is a Ruby convention. Methods that return a boolean value end with a question mark.

puts 6.class

The class method tells us what kind of object we are dealing with. In our case a 6 is a Fixnum

$ ./objectnumber.rb
13
true
false
Fixnum

Code example output.

Object creation

We have mentioned, that Ruby objects must be created before we can work with them. Objects can be created implicitly or explicitly. Implicit object creation is object creation by literal notation. Explicit object creation happens with the use of the new keyword. A custom object is always created with the new keyword. Custom objects must be created from a particular class. A class is a template for an object. A class can be used to create many objects.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

class Being
end
    
puts 67
puts "ZetCode"

s = String.new "ZetCode"
puts s

# n1 = Fixnum.new 67
# puts n1

b = Being.new
puts b

The code example demonstrates creation of objects in Ruby.

class Being
end

This is a template for our custom object called Being. The templates are created using the class keyword. The templates for custom objects are usually placed at the top of the source file or in a separate Ruby files.

puts 67
puts "ZetCode"

In these two lines we work with two objects. A 67 object of Fixnumtype and "ZetCode" string of String type. 67 and "String" are what we call literals. A literal is a textual representation of a particular value of a type. These two objects are created behind the scenes by the Ruby interpreter. Some objects in Ruby are created by specifying their literals in the source code.

s = String.new "ZetCode"
puts s

This is the formal way of creating a String object. It is equal to the previous, implicit creation with the string literal.

# n1 = Fixnum.new 67
# puts n1

Not all built-in objects can be created with the new method. This code does not compile. Fixnum numbers can be created only by the literal notation so far.

b = Being.new
puts b

And here we create an instance of the custom object. The puts method gives us a short description of the object.

$ ./ocreation.rb
67
ZetCode
ZetCode
#<Being:0x9944d9c>

Output of the example.

---

We will continue with some formal object creations.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

s1 = String.new "Ruby"
puts s1.size
puts s1.downcase

a1 = Array.new 
a1.push 1, 2, 3
puts a1.include? 3
puts a1.empty?

r1 = Range.new 1, 6
puts r1.class
puts r1.include? 4

In the example, we create three built-in objects and call a few of their methods.

s1 = String.new "Ruby"
puts s1.size
puts s1.downcase

A String object is created. We call two methods of the object. The size method returns the size of the string. The downcase method downcases the characters of the string.

a1 = Array.new 
a1.push 1, 2, 3
puts a1.include? 3
puts a1.empty?

Here we create an Array object and add three numbers to it. Later we call two array methods. The include? method checks if a particular value (3 in our case) is part of the array. The empty?method returns a boolean value indicating, whether the array is empty or not.

r1 = Range.new 1, 6
puts r1.class
puts r1.include? 4

An instance of the Range class is created. It contains numbers from 1 to 6. The class method returns the name of the object. The include? method checks if the number 4 is part of the range. It is in our case.

$ ./formal.rb
4
ruby
true
false
Range
true

Running the example gives this output.

Object literals

As we have already mentioned, some built-in objects can be created using object literals. The following example shows several object literals.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

4.times { puts "Ruby" }

puts "Ruby".size
puts "Ruby".downcase

puts [1, 2, 3].include? 3
puts [1, 2, 3].empty?

puts :name.class
puts :name.frozen?

puts (1..6).class
puts (1..6).include? 4

In the above example we use literal notation to create a Fixnum, Strings, Arrays, Symbols and Ranges.

4.times { puts "Ruby" }

We can immediately call a method on an integer literal. This line prints a "Ruby" string four times to the terminal.

puts "Ruby".size
puts "Ruby".downcase

We call two methods on a String object created with a string literal.

puts [1, 2, 3].include? 3
puts [1, 2, 3].empty?

Here we create two Array objects using array literal notations. We check if a specific number is part of the array with the include? method. The empty? method checks if the array object is empty or not.

puts :name.class
puts :name.frozen?

Two methods of the Symbol object are called. The symbol is created with a symbol literal, which starts with a colon.

puts (1..6).class
puts (1..6).include? 4

Two Range objects are created using the range literal. We call two methods on those objects. The class method returns the name of the class and the include? method checks if a given number is part of the range.

$ ./literals.rb
Ruby
Ruby
Ruby
Ruby
4
ruby
true
false
Symbol
false
Range
true

Example output.

Object hierarchy

In object-oriented languages objects form a hierarchy. Ruby is no exception. It is a tree-like hierarchy, where we have parent objects and child objects. Objects inherit data and behaviour from their parent objects. At the top of the hierarchy there is the root object. It is called the Object. Each object in Ruby has at least one parent. In other words, every object inherits from the basic Object object.
According to the official Ruby documentation, Object is the root of Ruby's class hierarchy. Its methods are available to all classes unless explicitly overridden.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

puts 4.is_a? Object
puts "Ruby".is_a? Object
puts [2, 3].is_a? Object
puts :name.is_a? Object
puts (1..2).is_a? Object

In the above code example we demonstrate, that all objects inherit from the root Object

puts 4.is_a? Object

We use the is_a? method to check, if the number is a specific type. In other words, if it inherits from a given object type.

$ ./mother.rb 
true
true
true
true
true

All methods return true, which means that all objects inherit from the mother object.

---

The inheritance hierarchy may be quite complex even for the very basic Ruby objects.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

puts 6.class

puts 6.is_a? BasicObject
puts 6.is_a? Object
puts 6.is_a? Numeric
puts 6.is_a? Integer
puts 6.is_a? Fixnum

puts 6.is_a? Bignum
puts 6.is_a? String

In this example we shed some light on the inheritance hierarchy of a small numerical value.

puts 6.class

We find out what kind of object is the number value 6. The line prints Fixnum to the console.

puts 6.is_a? BasicObject
puts 6.is_a? Object
puts 6.is_a? Numeric
puts 6.is_a? Integer
puts 6.is_a? Fixnum

All the above lines return true. Number 6 is a Fixnum. From the Ruby documentation we find out that the four other objects are parents of the Fixnumobject.

puts 6.is_a? Bignum
puts 6.is_a? String

The above two objects are not parents for the 6 value.

$ ./inheritance.rb
Fixnum
true
true
true
true
true
false
false

Output of the example.

---

We will finish this section with an example, demonstrating inheritance of custom user objects.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

class Being

    def to_s
        "This is Being"
    end
    
    def get_id
        9
    end
end

class Living < Being
    
    def to_s
        "This is Living"
    end
end

l = Living.new

puts l
puts l.get_id
puts l.is_a? Being
puts l.is_a? Object
puts l.is_a? BasicObject

In the example we create two objects. Being and Living. The Living object inherits from the Being. The first is a parent object and the second is a child object.

class Being

    def to_s
        "This is Being"
    end
    
    def get_id
        9
    end
end

This is a definition of a custom Ruby object. The definition is placed between the class and end keywords. Inside the definition, we create two methods. When the puts method takes an object as a parameter, it calls its to_s method. It usually gives a string representation/description of the object.

class Living < Being
    
    def to_s
        "This is Living"
    end
end

We create a definition of the Living object. The object inherits from the Being object. The < operator is used to create inheritance relationships. The to_s method is overwritten.

l = Living.new

From the above Living object template, we create an instance of the Living object. The instance of a custom object is created with the new keyword.

puts l

The puts method calls the to_s method of the Living object. Had the to_s method not been defined in the Living class, the to_s method of the Being class would have been called.

puts l.get_id

The Living object has no get_id method defined. In such a case, the parent classes are checked, if there is such a method. In our case the Being method has such a method and it is called.

puts l.is_a? Being

The line returns true. The Living is a type of a Being; e.g. it inherits from the Being class.

puts l.is_a? Object
puts l.is_a? BasicObject

For our Living custom object, we have not explicitly specified any relation to the Object or BasicObject objects. Yet the two lines return true. This is because every object in Ruby is automatically a descendant of these two objects. This is done behind the scenes by the Ruby interpreter.

$ ./custominher.rb
This is Living
9
true
true
true

Output of the example.

Ruby toplevel

Ruby has a specific object reffered to as Ruby toplevel. It is a default execution environment defined outside any other context like class or module definition. The toplevel's name is main. It is an instance of the Object type. There is a local space associated with the main, where all local variables reside.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

n1 = 3
n2 = 5

puts local_variables

Kernel.puts self
puts self.class

This is the first example describing the Ruby toplevel.

n1 = 3
n2 = 5

Here we have defined two numeric variables. These variables are local to the toplevel.

puts local_variables

Here we produce a list of all local variables. The local_variablesis a method of the Kernel module, which is mixed into each Object, including the toplevel object.

Kernel.puts self

The self is a Ruby pseudo variable. It returns the current object receiver. The line prints "main" to the console. It is the name for the Ruby toplevel. The Kernel part of the Kernel.puts code can be omitted. By fully specifying the name we show that the putsmethod belongs to the Kernel module.

puts self.class

The line prints the class of the toplevel. We get the object type of the toplevel. It is the Object, which is the root of Ruby's class hierarchy.

$ ./toplevel.rb
n1
n2
main
Object

This is the output of the example. The n1, n2 are the local variables associated with the toplevel. The main is the name given for the Ruby toplevel execution environment. Finally, the Object is the type of the toplevel.

---

We will have another example related to the Ruby toplevel.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

@name = "Jane"
@age = 17

def info
   "#{@name} is #{@age} years old" 
end

puts self.instance_variables
puts self.private_methods.include? :info

puts info

We show instance variables and methods that belong to the toplevel environment.

@name = "Jane"
@age = 17

We define two instance variables. Instance variables begin with the @ character in Ruby. Instance variables belong to a specific object instance. In this case, they belong to the Ruby toplevel.

def info
   "#{@name} is #{@age} years old" 
end

This is a method definition. Each method must belong to some object. This method belongs to the toplevel object. All toplevel methods are private. Access to private methods is restricted.

puts self.instance_variables

The instance_variables method prints all instance variables of the self, which points to the Ruby toplevel in this context.

puts self.private_methods.include? :info

All toplevel methods are automatically private. The private_methodsreturns all private methods of the object. Since there are many methods, we call the include? method to check, if the info method is among them. Note that we refer to the info method by its symbolic name.

$ ./toplevel2.rb
@name
@age
true
Jane is 17 years old

Example output.
This chapter covered some basics of the objects in Ruby language.