Intermingling attr_accessor and an initialize method in one class

Question

I see code like:

class Person
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end
end

I understand this allows me to do things like person = Pe

Answer 1

initialize and attr_accessor have nothing to do with each other. attr_accessor :name creates a couple of methods:

def name
  @name
end

def name=(val)
  @name = val
end

If you want to set name upon object creation, you can do it in the initializer:

def initialize(name)
  @name = name
  # or
  # self.name = name
end

But you don't have to do that. You can set name later, after creation.

p = Person.new
p.name = "David"
puts p.name # >> "David"