Question

How come in Ruby it’s possible to directly have an if statement directly in the class declaration? AKA:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  if foo
    bar = "x"
  end
end

I know there is some class instance variables, since the Class inherits from Object, is it the same thing?

I just need some clarification about this whole thing 🙂

Thanks!

Answer 1

The body of a class declaration is code just like everything else in Ruby. That’s how you can use methods like attr_accessor, private and include — those are all just methods of the class. It’s part of Ruby’s philosophy of pervasive object orientation.