From Ruby to Elixir

Chapter 3Working with Data

Conceptually, most software applications can be simplified to this: collect data, operate on data, and then return data to the user. This simplification avoids a whole host of complexities (user interface, database, and so on), but it holds true more often than not. Data and operations on that data are basically the entirety of an application.

In the previous chapter, you learned that functions and modules are used to organize your application. Functions do the work of your application, but they operate on data. So, the way that your data is defined has a big impact on how easy it is to write functions. Luckily, Elixir gives you all of the tools needed to create a clean data layer.

We’ll explore two of the data types ...