Mastering Getter and Setter Methods in Ruby: Enhance Your Object-Oriented Programming

Ned Cloud Engineer

Jul 9, 2023 · Updated Jan 17, 2024 · 6 min read

• What is a getter method?
• What is a settter method?
• Demonstration
  • Accessing variables
    • Defining a custom getter method
    • Using Ruby’s built-in attr_reader method
  • Setting variables
    • Defining a custom setter method
    • Using Ruby’s built in attr_writer method

In the world of object-oriented programming, mastering getter and setter methods is important to effectively manage the state of objects. Ruby, with its most powerful weapon, elegant syntax, and other powerful features, offers a unique approach to these getter and setter methods. This article deep dives into the topic of getter and setter methods in Ruby.

What is a getter method?

If we need to access a value of a private variable from a class we use a getter method which is commonly known as accessor.

• accessor or getter

What is a settter method?

When we need to change the value of a variable, that is defined inside a class, we use a mutator method commonly known as setter method or writer method.

• mutator or setter or writer

Demonstration

To demonstrate this we will define a class named Car.

class Car
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
end

Now we make a new instance of the class named Car.

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

Accessing variables

How do we get the values of the instance variables from the car object? One way is to use the instance_variable_get method like this

puts "Car model is "   + car.instance_variable_get(:@model)
puts "Car company is " + car.instance_variable_get(:@company)
puts "Car color is "   + car.instance_variable_get(:@color)

Defining a custom getter method

A much simpler solution is to define a new getter method for each attribute.

class Car
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
  def model
    @model
  end
  def company
    @company
  end
  def color
    @color
  end
end

now we make a new instance of the class named Car

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

now we get the instance variable values using getter methods

puts "Car model is "   + car.model
puts "Car company is " + car.company
puts "Car color is "   + car.color

Using Ruby’s built-in attr_reader method

It is much easier to get the value of the color instance variable with car.color than car.instance_variable_get(:@color)

The best way to make a getter method is to use the built-in Ruby attr_reader method which automatically creates getter methods for provided attributes

class Car
  attr_reader :model, :company, :color
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
end

Now we make a new instance of the class named Car

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

Now we get the instance variable values using attr_reader

puts "Car model is "   + car.model
puts "Car company is " + car.company
puts "Car color is "   + car.color

Setting variables

To set instance variables inside the car object we can use the instance_variable_set method

First, define a class named Car

class Car
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
end

now we make an new instance of the class named Car

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

to change the values of the color instance variable use instance_variable_set method

car.instance_variable_set(:@color,"Tango")

Defining a custom setter method

or we could define a setter method

class Car
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
  # We define a setter method for color attributes inside the class
  def color=(new_color)
    @color = new_color
  end
end

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

Let’s display the current values of instance variables

puts car.inspect

let’s change the color of the car using the setter method

car.color = "Tango"

let us check if the color was changed

puts car.inspect

the color of the car now is Tango instead White

Using Ruby’s built in attr_writer method

Ruby provides the attr_writer method which provides setter methods for provided attributes, for example

class Car
  attr_writer :model, :company, :color
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
end

car = Car.new("Focus","Ford","White")

Change instance_variable color

car.color = "Tango"

Check if the value was changed

car.inspect

Define getters and setters in the same class

One way using attr_reader and attr_writer methods.

class Car
  attr_reader :model, :company, :color
  attr_writer :model, :company, :color
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model   = model
    @company = company
    @color   = color
  end
end

The easiest way is using the attr_accessor method.

class Car
  attr_accessor :model, :company, :color
  def initialize(model, company, color)
    @model = model
    @company = company
    @color = color
  end
end

Rating:

ruby #oop #ruby

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