ruby should I use self. or @

Question

Here is my ruby code

class Demo
  attr_accessor :lines

  def initialize(lines)
    self.lines = lines
  end
end

In the above code I could have

Answer 1

self.lines is a method, @lines is the instance variable. In your constructor you'll want to use self.lines I would argue, but that's up for debate. It's just a stylistic difference, really. If you want a deeper discussion of direct vs. indirect variable access, read the chapter from Kent Beck's Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns.