From: Nicholas Van Weerdenburg <nick@...>
Date: 2004-07-14T12:34:24+09:00
Subject: Re: instance variable question in test/unit TestCase

  @myvar ||= 1 # initialize @myvar, but only if it's nil
  @myvar = 1 unless defined?(@myvar)

Ah, the first idiom is neat. I hadn't seen that one. Unfortunately, the 
issue I still have is that I don't have a single place where I want to 
set these- the variable is in many methods.

Hmmm...Java code generator in Ruby. I like it!

Thanks,
Nick

Joel VanderWerf wrote:

> Nicholas Van Weerdenburg wrote:
>
>> 1. A more general question: how do I initialize instance variables 
>> without an "initialize" method? In my test case, I want instance 
>> variables, but placing "@myvar=1" outside a method doesn't seem to 
>> work ( I dimly recall that this is a class instance variable or 
>> something like that). The reason I want to do this is that in 
>> subclassing Test::Unit::TestCase I don't know offhand what it's 
>> initialize method looks like (a no arg "initialize" gives an argment 
>> number error) and don't want to learn just for this reason.
>>
>> I just thought of trying the following-
>>
>> def initialize *args
>>    super *args
>>    @myvar=1
>> end
>>
>> and it worked (I think). Cool.
>>
>> My other option is the setup method, since that is called for before 
>> all test methods. Are there any other options?
>
>
> Use the ||= idiom. I like it because it can keep the initialization 
> near the point of use.
>
> def foo
>   @myvar ||= 1 # initialize @myvar, but only if it's nil
> end
>
> Of course, this assumes that nil is not an expected value for the 
> variable. Otherwise, you can use
>
>   @myvar = 1 unless defined?(@myvar)
>
>> 2. where do I find the will to return to programming in Java now that 
>> I'm having so much fun in Ruby?
>
>
> Dunno.. write a java code generator in ruby?
>