Correct way to define variables and methods in Ruby [closed]

Question

I am trying to write a Person class in Ruby which has some methods and properties. The below is how I have implemented it now.

class Person
  attr_accessor :name, :gender, :mother, :spouse

  def initialize(name, gender, mother = nil)
    @name = name
    @gender = gender
    @mother = mother
    @spouse = nil
  end

  def add_spouse(spouse)
    if spouse
      @spouse = spouse
      spouse.spouse = self
    end
  end
  
  def father(self)
    return [self.mother.spouse]
  end
end

I want to access the methods like this:

m = Person.new('mom', 'Female')
d = Person.new('dad', 'Male')

d.add_spouse(m)

p = Person.new('Jack', 'Male', m)

If I want to get the father of p, then I want to get it like this: p.father.

So is the above implementation correct?

In python if I want a class method as a property then @property is used. In Ruby is there anything like that or is the above method for father property correct? Also I have seen examples with self.some_variable and @some_variable in Ruby. Here name and gender variables are defined at the object creation and never changed but other variables like mother, children can be nil initially and can be added by some other external method. For eg: By a method add_member in class Family. So for that is the above definition correct?

Answer 1

Your code has an error in the definition of father. In ruby, there is no need to add self as a parameter. In addition you return an array with the mother. This may be correct under some legal systems, but I think you didn't want to implement this..

It is fine, if you use:

def father()
  return self.mother.spouse
end

Then you can use it as son.father.

---

Ruby defines instance variables as @varname, you can use them inside the class.

If you want to have access from outside, you must define accessors (setter, getter or both). From outside you don't see a difference between accessors and "normal" methods. You call a method and get a result.

Inside a class I recommend to use the accessor if it is defined. If you ever replace the standard accessor with a programm logic, then you don't need to adapt the code.