Question

I am learning ruby and wondering if it is possible to create a var from a variable combined with a string.

a = "variable"
a+"_name" = []
variable_name => []

Thanks,
CG

Answer 1

You can do this easily with an instance variable as such:

>> a = "variable"
=> "variable"
>> instance_variable_set(:"@#{a}_name", [])
=> []
>> @variable_name
=> []

If you’re curious about why this is easier to do with an ivar, read up about Ruby variable binding and scoping rules.