Thursday, August 2, 2007

Ruby Function (method) Syntax

The Ruby language makes it easy to create functions.

Function Syntax

def functionname(variable)
return
end

Examples

Your function can compute values and store them in local variables that are specific to the function. Those values can then be returned with the return statement.

def say_hello(name)
var = "Hello, " + name
return var
end

The return statement also can be shortened for very simple functions into a single line

def say_hello(name)
return "Hello, " + name
end

You can simplify the function further. The last expression that is evaluated is automatically returned by the method. For example:

def say_hello(name)
"Hello, " + name
end

This would return the same value as the prior functions.

To call a function

function param1, param2

or

function(param1,param2)

Example

puts say_hello("Geek")

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