As I’m learning Ruby, I’m having a somewhat hard time remembering all the specific Ruby syntax. So this is more of a guide to myself (by writing it out, I’m hoping I’ll remember it better), and you’re welcome to follow along…

Local Variables

Examples:

• name
• student_id
• graduation2012
• _photo

A local variable is a variable that is given local scope and is accessible from a declared method or block in which it is declared. In Ruby, local variables start with a lower-case letter or an underscore, and can have numbers in the name. camelCase is not really used for local variables in Ruby, so use the underscores instead.

Instance Variables

Examples:

• @name
• @student_id
• @graduation2012
• @_photo

An instance variable is a variable defined in a class, for which each object of the class has a separate copy. Instance variables in Ruby are declared with an “@” sign in front of the variable name.

Class Variables

Examples:

• @@name
• @@student_id
• @@YEAR

An class variable is a variable defined in a class, for each each object of the class has a single copy. If you’d like to learn more about the difference between class and instance variables, here is a great explanation. Class variables start with “@@” signs in from of the variable name.

Global Variables

Examples:

• $name
• $_photo
• $Year
• $COLLEGE

A global variable is accessible in every scope. In Ruby, the global variables start with a “$” sign in front of the variable name.

Class Names

Examples:

• MyClass
• School
• Student

In Ruby, class names start with a capital letter and could be CamelCase.

Constant Names

Examples:

• CREDITS
• YEARS_TO_GRADUATE
• PI

Constants in Ruby are all caps.

Wow, writing these out really did help me remember all of these