From: Brian Candler <b.candler@...>
Date: 2011-12-12T18:17:39+09:00
Subject: Re: CONCEPT OF INSTANCE VARIABLE IN RUBY

La Wi wrote in post #1036024:
> If your program consists entirely of this code:
>
>    @x = 'hello'
>    def printMe
>      puts x
>      puts @x
>    end
...
> x is a local variable whose scope is limited to printMe(), and is
> undefined.

No, that's not quite right. x here is a method call, not a local 
variable, because there has been no assignment to x earlier in the scope 
(in this case the body of method 'printMe'). That is:

    puts x

is interpreted as if you had written

    puts self.x
or  puts x()

However, if you had written instead:

    def printMe
      if false
        x = 123
      end
      puts x
    end

then x would indeed be a local variable, and its value is 'nil' (because 
the assignment which occurs earlier in the scope is not actually 
executed)

Regards,

Brian.

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