Question

Just curious what the best practice is for accessing an instance variable from within a class assuming attr_accessor is set.

class Test
  attr_accessor :user

  def initializer(user)
    @user = user
  end

  def foo
    @user
  end
end

or

class Test
  attr_accessor :user

  def initializer(user)
    @user = user
  end

  def foo
    self.user
  end
end

So by instance variable (@user) or getter method (Test#user)?

Answer 1

Getter method, because it’s easier to refactor. Say you want to update a time stamp at the point of access.

class Test
  def user
    @user.last_read = Time.now
    @user
  end
end

And all your references to user are updated with the new logic. Not so easy if your references are to @user.