The Ruby Workshop

Book description

Cut through the noise and get real results with a step-by-step approach to learning Ruby programming.

Key Features

  • Ideal for the Ruby beginner who is getting started with Ruby for the first time
  • A complete Ruby tutorial with exercises and activities that help build key skills
  • Structured to let you progress at your own pace, on your own terms
  • Use your physical copy to redeem free access to the online interactive edition

Book Description

You already know you want to learn Ruby, and the smarter way to learn Ruby 2.X is to learn by doing. The Ruby Workshop focuses on building up your practical skills so that you can kick-start your career as a developer and rapidly prototype applications. You'll learn from real examples that lead to real results.

Throughout The Ruby Workshop, you'll take an engaging step-by-step approach to understanding the Ruby language. You won't have to sit through any unnecessary theory. If you're short on time you can jump into a single exercise each day or spend an entire weekend learning about metaprogramming. It's your choice. Learning on your terms, you'll build up and reinforce key skills in a way that feels rewarding.

Every physical copy of The Ruby Workshop unlocks access to the interactive edition. With videos detailing all exercises and activities, you'll always have a guided solution. You can also benchmark yourself against assessments, track progress, and receive content updates. You'll even earn a secure credential that you can share and verify online upon completion. It's a premium learning experience that's included with your printed copy. To redeem, follow the instructions located at the start of your Ruby book.

Fast-paced and direct, The Ruby Workshop is the ideal companion for Ruby beginners. You'll build and iterate on your Ruby code like a software developer, learning along the way. This process means that you'll find that your new skills stick, embedded as best practice. A solid foundation for the years ahead.

What you will learn

  • Get to grips with the fundamentals of Ruby object-oriented programming
  • Understand common Ruby patterns to help minimize and easily maintain code
  • Explore ways to fetch, process, and output external data
  • Discover ways to work with public APIs and create reusable RubyGems
  • Keep your development process bug-free with various testing methods
  • Explore how to host applications on cloud application platforms like Heroku

Who this book is for

Our goal at Packt is to help you be successful, in whatever it is you choose to do. The Ruby Workshop is an ideal Ruby tutorial for the Ruby beginner who is just getting started. Pick up a Workshop today, and let Packt help you develop skills that stick with you for life.

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. About the Book
      1. About the Chapters
      2. Conventions
      3. Before You Begin
      4. Installing Ruby 2.6
      5. Installing the Code Bundle
  2. 1. Writing and Running Ruby Programs
    1. Introduction
      1. Key Features of Ruby
        1. Object-Oriented
        2. Interpreted Language
        3. Duck Typing and Dynamic Typing
        4. Multi-paradigm Language
        5. Reflection
        6. Metaprogramming
    2. Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB)
      1. Exercise 1.01: Creating and Assigning Variables
      2. Exercise 1.02: Assigning a Variable of One Data Type to a Different Type
      3. Exercise 1.03: Getting the Type of a Variable
      4. Getting the Details of the Public Methods of an Object
      5. Running Ruby Code from Ruby Files
      6. Exercise 1.04: Getting User Input in a Ruby Program
    3. Standard Data Types
      1. Number
      2. Exercise 1.05: Performing Common Integer Operations
      3. Exercise 1.06: Using Common Integer Methods to Perform Complex Arithmetic
      4. Floating-Point Numbers
      5. Exercise 1.07: Performing Common Operations for Floating-Point Numbers
      6. String
      7. Exercise 1.08: Using Common String Methods
      8. Exercise 1.09: Performing String Concatenation
      9. Exercise 1.10: Performing String Interpolation
      10. Exercise 1.11: Extracting and Searching a Substring from a String
      11. Exercise 1.12: Replacing Part of a String with Another String
      12. Exercise 1.13: Replacing All the Values inside a String Using gsub
      13. Exercise 1.14: Splitting a String and Joining a String
      14. Activity 1.01: Generating Email Addresses Using Ruby
      15. Boolean
      16. Activity 1.02: Calculating the Area and Perimeter of a Candy Manufacturing Plant
    4. Summary
  3. 2. Ruby Data Types and Operations
    1. Introduction
    2. Arrays
      1. Iterating Through an Array
      2. Operations on Arrays
        1. Merging Two Arrays
        2. Removing Occurrences of Similar Elements from an Array
        3. Inserting Elements into an Array at the End
        4. Finding the Last Element of an Array without Modifying It
        5. Finding the Last Element of an Array and Removing it
      3. Exercise 2.01: Performing Simple Operations on Arrays
        1. Creating an Array That Cannot Be Modified
        2. Finding All the Unique Elements in an Array
        3. Sorting the Elements of an Array
        4. Finding the Number of Elements in an Array
        5. Establishing Whether an Element Exists in an Array (Case-Sensitive)
        6. Converting Elements of an Array into a String
      4. Exercise 2.02: Performing Complex Operations on Arrays
    3. Hashes
      1. Operations on Hashes
        1. Getting Values from the Hash
        2. Sorting a Hash
        3. Merging Hashes
        4. Retrieving Keys or Values from a Hash
        5. Deleting a Value from a Hash by Key
        6. Removing or Rejecting Elements from a Hash
        7. Establishing whether a Hash Contains a Particular Value
      2. Exercise 2.03: Converting a Time String to a Hash
    4. Ruby Methods
      1. Passing Arguments to a Method
      2. Ruby Methods with Default Values
      3. Return Value(s) from Methods
      4. Naming Conventions for Methods
      5. Activity 2.01: Dice Roller Program
    5. Summary
  4. 3. Program Flow
    1. Introduction
    2. Boolean Operators
      1. The AND Operator
        1. The OR Operator
        2. The NOT Operator
      2. Truth Tables
      3. Truthiness
      4. Precedence
      5. Exercise 3.01: Implementing Boolean Operators
      6. Conditional Expressions
        1. The if Statement
        2. The else Statement
        3. The elsif Statement
        4. The unless Statement
    3. Comparison
      1. Comparison Operators
      2. Comparing Strings
      3. Exercise 3.02: Creating a Method to Check Your Balance
      4. The case/when Statement
      5. The === Operator
    4. The Ternary Operator
      1. Exercise 3.03: Speed Determiner
    5. Loops
      1. The while/do Loop
      2. Exercise 3.04: Developing a Mind Reader
      3. The until/do Loop
      4. The do/while Loop
      5. Iterators and Enumerators
        1. The each Method
        2. The each_with_index Method
        3. The map/collect Loop
      6. Exercise 3.05: Developing an Arbitrary Math Method
      7. Activity 3.01: Number-Guessing Game
    6. Summary
  5. Ruby Methods
    1. Introduction
    2. The Basic Structure of the Ruby Method
      1. Method Components: Signature and Implementation
      2. The Method Signature
      3. Method Arguments
      4. Positional Arguments
      5. Variable Scope
      6. Optional Parentheses and Code Style
      7. Mandatory and Optional Arguments
      8. Keyword Arguments
    3. Return Values
      1. Multiple Return Values
      2. Exercise 4.01: Performing Operations on an Array
    4. The Splat Operator
      1. The Single Splat (*) Operator
        1. The Double Splat (**) Operator
      2. Exercise 4.02: Creating a Method to Take Any Number of Parameters
    5. Duck Typing
    6. Sending a Message
      1. Using Built-In Modules: Time and Math
      2. Math
      3. Exercise 4.03: Using the Math Library to Perform Mathematical Operations
      4. Time
      5. Exercise 4.04: Performing Method Operations with the Time Module
      6. Activity 4.01: Blackjack Card Game
    7. Summary
  6. 5. Object-Oriented programming with Ruby
    1. Introduction
    2. Classes and Objects
      1. Instance Methods
    3. Getters and Setters
      1. Exercise 5.01: Modeling a Company's Organizational Chart Using Classes
      2. Class Methods
        1. Method 1: Calling a Method Directly on the Class
        2. Method 2: Using the self Keyword
      3. Class Variables
      4. Exercise 5.02: Generating URLs for Sharing Content on Social Platforms
    4. Inheritance
      1. The Inheritance of Methods
      2. The Inheritance of Variables
      3. Calling super
      4. The Different Ways to Call super
        1. Calling super without Arguments
        2. Calling super with Arguments
        3. Calling super with the Naked Splat Operator
      5. Exercise 5.03: Modelling a Class for Location Addresses
    5. Encapsulation
      1. Public Methods
        1. Private Methods
        2. Protected Methods
      2. Exercise 5.04: Demonstrate the Visibility Rules of Ruby Methods
      3. Bypassing Visibility
        1. A Quick Note about File Organization
      4. Activity 5.01: Voting Application for Employee of the Month
    6. Summary
  7. 6. Modules and Mixins
    1. Introduction
    2. Including Modules
      1. Exercise 6.01: Controlling the Operations of Services in an Application
      2. Inheritance with Module Methods
      3. Inclusion Ordering
    3. extend
      1. Exercise 6.02: Extending Your Modules with Class and Instance Methods
      2. Module Callbacks
      3. Exercise 6.03: Using Module Functions to Extend Classes
      4. Importing Modules as Class Methods using Extended
      5. Combining include and extend
      6. Enumerated Types
      7. Exercise 6.04: Writing a Module to Define Payment Methods for a Product Application
    4. Module Methods
    5. Namespaces
      1. Exercise 6.05: How to Reuse Constants with a Namespace
    6. prepend
      1. prepend with Subclasses
      2. Exercise 6.06: Prepending Modules to Classes
      3. Activity 6.01: Implementing Categories on the Voting Application Program
    7. Summary
  8. 7. Introduction to Ruby Gems
    1. Introduction
    2. RubyGems and the require Method
      1. gem search
        1. gem install
        2. gem dependency
        3. gem Versioning
        4. gem list
    3. Using Gems in Your Code
      1. Exercise 7.01: Installing and Using a Ruby Gem
    4. File I/O
      1. Creating Files
        1. Reading Files
        2. Using the File.read Method
        3. Using the File.open Method
        4. Using the File.foreach Method
        5. read versus open versus foreach
        6. Writing to Files
        7. Using the File.new Method (Initializer)
        8. Using the File.open Method with a Block Method
        9. Using the File.write Method
        10. File.open versus File.new
      2. File Modes
      3. File Helpers
    5. Handling CSV Data
      1. Reading Data from a CSV File Using CSV.read
      2. Using Column Headers as Field Names
      3. Exercise 7.02: Reading Data from a .csv File and Printing a Few Columns
      4. Reading Data from a .csv File Using CSV.foreach
      5. Response Type Variations
    6. Writing Data
      1. Writing CSV Data from an Enumerable
      2. Exercise 7.03: Writing an Array of Users to a CSV File
    7. Service Objects
      1. The Single Responsibility Principle
      2. Service Objects versus Modules
      3. Class Method Execution
      4. Exercise 7.04: Building a Service Object
      5. Activity 7.01: Presenting Voting Data in CSV Format Using Ruby Gems
    8. Summary
  9. 8. Debugging with Ruby
    1. Introduction
    2. Logging and Debugging
      1. Logging with the logger Class
    3. Basic Logging
      1. Log Levels
      2. Exercise 8.01: Logging User Information
      3. Exercise 8.02: Creating a Basic Exception Logger
      4. Setting Log Levels by String
      5. Log Output
        1. STDOUT
        2. STDERR
        3. File
      6. Log Formatting
        1. Custom Date Formats
        2. Custom String Formats
        3. Time Zones and UTC
      7. Log File Management
        1. Size-Based Retention
        2. Time-Based Retention
      8. Exercise 8.03: Creating a Rolling Log File
    4. Debugging
      1. Debugging Concepts
        1. Breakpoints
        2. Stack Trace/Call Stack/Back Trace
        3. Viewing the Stack Trace
        4. StepOver, StepInto, and StepOut
      2. Debugging via the CLI with byebug
      3. Conditional Debugging
      4. Navigating with byebug
      5. Exercise 8.04: Debugging with byebug
      6. Debugging with Visual Studio Code
      7. Setting Breakpoints
      8. Logpoints
      9. The Debug Console
      10. Exercise 8.05: Debugging with Visual Studio Code
      11. Activity 8.01: Perform Debugging on a Voting Application
    5. Summary
  10. 9. Ruby Beyond the Basics l
    1. Introduction
    2. Metaprogramming
      1. Blocks
      2. Syntax for Blocks
        1. With do/end
        2. With curly brackets ({})
      3. yield with Blocks
      4. Exercise 9.01: Building a Simple Calculator
      5. block_given? with Blocks
      6. Exercise 9.02: Building a Flight Status Display System
      7. The proc Object
      8. Exercise 9.03: Performing the sum Function on a Range of Numbers
      9. Exercise 9.04: Calculating Profit Using proc on an Input Price List
      10. Lambdas
      11. Exercise 9.05: Creating a Program to Sum a Range of Numbers Using Lambdas
      12. proc versus lambda
      13. The Story of the Chef and the Restaurant
      14. Activity 9.01: Invoice Generator
    3. Summary
  11. 10. Ruby Beyond the Basics ll
    1. Introduction
    2. Metaprogramming – A Deep Dive
      1. Opening Classes
      2. Exercise 10.01: Opening the Ruby String Class to Add a New Method to it
      3. Monkey Patching
      4. Exercise 10.02: Using Monkey Patching to Add/Subtract Values
      5. method_missing
      6. Exercise 10.03: Managing Ghost Methods for the Company Class
      7. The Define Method
      8. Exercise 10.04: Creating a Welcome Message Program Using define_method
    3. HTTP Requests
      1. HTTP Requests with Ruby
      2. Exercise 10.05: Creating a Ruby Program to Make a Successful GET Request
      3. Status Codes
      4. Exercise 10.06: Creating a POST Request Using Ruby
    4. Creating a Ruby Gem
      1. Exercise 10.07: Creating Your Own Ruby Gem
      2. Activity 10.01: Implementing GET and POST Data to an External Server
    5. Summary
  12. 11. Introduction to Ruby on Rails l
    1. Introduction
      1. MVC
        1. Model
        2. View
        3. Controller
    2. Generating Our First Rails App
      1. Exercise 11.01: Generating a Simple Rails Application
    3. Anatomy of a Rails application
      1. Exercise 11.02: Replacing the Default Page
      2. Exercise 11.03: Displaying a Page Heading from the Value Served from Its Action
      3. Extending Our View and Controller
      4. Exercise 11.04: Adding a Resource to the Rails Application
    4. Models, Migrations, and Databases
      1. Exercise 11.05: Creating a Review Model for citireview
    5. The Rails Console
      1. Exercise 11.06: Completing the Reviews Web Application
        1. The devise Ruby Gem
      2. Activity 11.01: Adding Authentication for the Review Application
    6. Summary
  13. 12. Introduction to Ruby on Rails ll
    1. Introduction
    2. Associations
      1. belongs_to
      2. has_one
      3. has_many
      4. has_many :through
      5. has_one :through
      6. has_and_belongs_to_many
      7. Exercise 12.01: Creating a Model to Enable Users to Comment on Reviews on the CitiReview Application
    3. Validations
      1. Database Validations
      2. Controller-Level Validations
      3. Client-Side Validations
      4. Model-Level Validations
      5. Methods that Trigger Validations
      6. Methods that Skip Validations
        1. Checking Validations
      7. Exercise 12.02: Adding Validation for the Citireview Application
      8. Scaffolding
      9. Exercise 12.03: Using Rails Scaffolding to Create a Rails Application for a Store with a List of Products
      10. Activity 12.01: Create a Blog Application and Host It Live on a Cloud Platform
    4. Summary
  14. Appendix
    1. 1. Writing and Running Ruby Programs
      1. Activity 1.01: Generating Email Addresses Using Ruby
      2. Activity 1.02: Calculating the Area and Perimeter for a Candy Manufacturing Plant
    2. 2. Ruby Data Types and Operations
      1. Activity 2.01: Dice Roller Program
    3. 3. Program Flow
      1. Activity 3.01: Number-Guessing Game
    4. 4. Ruby Methods
      1. Activity 4.01: Blackjack Card Game
    5. 5. Object-Oriented Programming with Ruby
      1. Activity 5.01: Voting Application for Employee of the Month
    6. 6. Modules and Mixins
      1. Activity 6.01: Implementing Categories on the Voting Application Program
    7. 7. Introduction to Ruby Gems
      1. Activity 7.01: Presenting Voting Data in CSV Format Using Ruby Gems
    8. 8. Debugging with Ruby
      1. Activity 8.01: Perform Debugging on a Voting Application
    9. 9. Ruby Beyond the Basics I
      1. Activity 9.01: Invoice Generator
    10. 10. Ruby Beyond the Basics II
      1. Activity 10.01: Implementing GET and POST Data to an External Server
    11. 11. Introduction to Ruby on Rails I
      1. Activity 11.01: Adding Authentication for the Review Application
    12. 12. Introduction to Ruby on Rails II
      1. Activity 12.01: Create a Blog Application and Host It Live on a Cloud Platform

Product information

  • Title: The Ruby Workshop
  • Author(s): Akshat Paul, Peter Philips, Daniel Szabo, Cheyne Wallace
  • Release date: October 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781838642365