From: Stefano Crocco <stefano.crocco@...>
Date: 2013-02-23T17:02:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Why class returning its own name when "include" statement?

On Saturday 23 February 2013 Love U Ruby wrote
> I was actually playing around with the class definition return values.
> below is the all IRB code that I used till now.
> 
> module Show
> def show_string
> p "hi"
> end
> end
> 
> #=> nil
> class Test
> include Show
> def show_line
> p "I am a boy"
> end
> end
> #=> nil
> 
> class Abc
> end
> #=> nil
> class Bbc
> @X=10
> end
> #=> 10
> class Test123
> include Show
> @x=5
> end
> #=> 5
> 
> =========================================================================
> Till the above code I did understand the logic,but in the below code why
> "class" definition returns its own name whenever "include" is the last
> statement? - I didn't understand this fact.
> =========================================================================
> 
> class Foo
> @x=12
> include Show
> end
> #=> Foo
> 
> 
> class Test
> include Show
> end
> #=> Test
> 
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

As you can see from your Abc example, a class expression returns the value of 
the last expression inside it. Since Module#include returns self (that is, the 
caller which, in your case, is class Foo), the whole class expression returns 
the class itself (not its name, but the class object).

Stefano