What is attr_accessor in Ruby?

Question

I am having a hard time understanding `attr_accessor` in Ruby. Can someone explain this to me?

Answer 1

Normally when making a class, you create a property and create methods to get and set that property.

attr_accessor helps you by creating those methods for you.

Here is an example without attr_accessor:

Something like this:

class Dog

def breed

@breed

end

def breed=(dog_breed)

@breed = dog_breed

end

end

dog1 = Dog.new()

dog1.breed = "Spaniard"

puts dog1.breed

That is an example of a simple Dog class that has a property breed. You have a method that gets the breed property, and a setter method that changes the breed property.

Instead of having to type that out yourself, if you used attr_accessor, you could have just done:

class Dog

attr_accessor :breed

end

dog1 = Dog.new()

dog1.breed = "Spaniard"

puts dog1.breed

And the result would be exactly the same because attr_accessor created those getter and setter methods for the property breed.

Hope that helps :)