Question

Let’s say I had a class like this:

class Parser
  attr_accessor :config, :html
  def initialize(config, html)
    @config = config
    @html = html
  end
  ...
end

Is it safe to name the parameters to my initializer method the same as the attr_accessors? Is it bad style? What would be a better style?

Answer 1

It is totally safe to do this and I do it all the time. However, I think that’s it’s a better style to set your object attributes like this:

class Parser
  attr_accessor :config, :html
  def initialize(config, html)
    self.config = config
    self.html = html
  end
  ...
end

When you do this, your code will use the setter methods provided by attr_acessor. This way you always have a consistent way that your variables are accessed.