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Ruby in a Nutshell
book

Ruby in a Nutshell

by Yukihiro Matsumoto
November 2001
Intermediate to advanced
218 pages
6h 22m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Ruby in a Nutshell

Methods

Class methods are defined with the def statement. The def statement adds a method to the innermost class or module definition surrounding the def statement. A def statement outside a class or module definition (at the top level) adds a method to the Object class itself, thus defining a method that can be referenced anywhere in the program.

When a method is called, Ruby searches for it in a number of places in the following order:

  1. Among the methods defined in that object (i.e., singleton methods).

  2. Among the methods defined by that object’s class.

  3. Among the methods of the modules included by that class.

  4. Among the methods of the superclass.

  5. Among the methods of the modules included by that superclass.

  6. Repeats Steps 4 and 5 until the top-level object is reached.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596002149Errata Page