Ruby class instance variable vs. class variable

Question

I read When do Ruby instance variables get set? but I'm of two minds when to use class instance variables.

Class variables are shared by all objects of a class, Instance variables belong to one object. There's not much room left to use class instance variables if we have class variables.

Could someone explain the difference between these two and when to use them?

Here's a code example:

class S
  @@k = 23
  @s = 15
  def self.s
    @s
  end
  def self.k
     @@k
  end

end
p S.s #15
p S.k #23

Update: I understand now! Class Instance Variables are not passed along the inheritance chain.

Tilth

Answer 1

Instance variable on a class:

class Parent
  @things = []
  def self.things
    @things
  end
  def things
    self.class.things
  end
end

class Child < Parent
  @things = []
end

Parent.things << :car
Child.things  << :doll
mom = Parent.new
dad = Parent.new

p Parent.things #=> [:car]
p Child.things  #=> [:doll]
p mom.things    #=> [:car]
p dad.things    #=> [:car]

Class variable:

class Parent
  @@things = []
  def self.things
    @@things
  end
  def things
    @@things
  end
end

class Child < Parent
end

Parent.things << :car
Child.things  << :doll

p Parent.things #=> [:car,:doll]
p Child.things  #=> [:car,:doll]

mom = Parent.new
dad = Parent.new
son1 = Child.new
son2 = Child.new
daughter = Child.new

[ mom, dad, son1, son2, daughter ].each{ |person| p person.things }
#=> [:car, :doll]
#=> [:car, :doll]
#=> [:car, :doll]
#=> [:car, :doll]
#=> [:car, :doll]

With an instance variable on a class (not on an instance of that class) you can store something common to that class without having sub-classes automatically also get them (and vice-versa). With class variables, you have the convenience of not having to write self.class from an instance object, and (when desirable) you also get automatic sharing throughout the class hierarchy.

---

Merging these together into a single example that also covers instance variables on instances:

class Parent
  @@family_things = []    # Shared between class and subclasses
  @shared_things  = []    # Specific to this class

  def self.family_things
    @@family_things
  end
  def self.shared_things
    @shared_things
  end

  attr_accessor :my_things
  def initialize
    @my_things = []       # Just for me
  end
  def family_things
    self.class.family_things
  end
  def shared_things
    self.class.shared_things
  end
end

class Child < Parent
  @shared_things = []
end

And then in action:

mama = Parent.new
papa = Parent.new
joey = Child.new
suzy = Child.new

Parent.family_things << :house
papa.family_things   << :vacuum
mama.shared_things   << :car
papa.shared_things   << :blender
papa.my_things       << :quadcopter
joey.my_things       << :bike
suzy.my_things       << :doll
joey.shared_things   << :puzzle
suzy.shared_things   << :blocks

p Parent.family_things #=> [:house, :vacuum]
p Child.family_things  #=> [:house, :vacuum]
p papa.family_things   #=> [:house, :vacuum]
p mama.family_things   #=> [:house, :vacuum]
p joey.family_things   #=> [:house, :vacuum]
p suzy.family_things   #=> [:house, :vacuum]

p Parent.shared_things #=> [:car, :blender]
p papa.shared_things   #=> [:car, :blender]
p mama.shared_things   #=> [:car, :blender]
p Child.shared_things  #=> [:puzzle, :blocks]  
p joey.shared_things   #=> [:puzzle, :blocks]
p suzy.shared_things   #=> [:puzzle, :blocks]

p papa.my_things       #=> [:quadcopter]
p mama.my_things       #=> []
p joey.my_things       #=> [:bike]
p suzy.my_things       #=> [:doll] 

Precincts

@Phronz What is the difference between self.things and self.class.things you mentioned in code ? – Guggenheim

@Guggenheim self.things referenced a method things in the current scope (in case of an instance of a class, it will be the instance's method), where self.class.things references a things method from the class of current scope (again in case of an instance of a class it would mean the class method). – Ki

Answer 2

Source

Availability to instance methods

• Class instance variables are available only to class methods and not to instance methods.
• Class variables are available to both instance methods and class methods.

Inheritability

• Class instance variables are lost in the inheritance chain.
• Class variables are not.

class Vars

  @class_ins_var = "class instance variable value"  #class instance variable
  @@class_var = "class variable value" #class  variable

  def self.class_method
    puts @class_ins_var
    puts @@class_var
  end

  def instance_method
    puts @class_ins_var
    puts @@class_var
  end
end

Vars.class_method

puts "see the difference"

obj = Vars.new

obj.instance_method

class VarsChild < Vars


end

VarsChild.class_method

Paleogeography

Answer 3

I believe the main (only?) different is inheritance:

class T < S
end

p T.k
=> 23

S.k = 24
p T.k
=> 24

p T.s
=> nil

Class variables are shared by all "class instances" (i.e. subclasses), whereas class instance variables are specific to only that class. But if you never intend to extend your class, the difference is purely academic.

Thoroughfare

That's not the only difference. The "shared" vs "instance" goes further than just inheritance. If you put instance getters you'll get S.new.s => nil and S.new.k => 23. – Sagittarius

Answer 4

As others said, class variables are shared between a given class and its subclasses. Class instance variables belong to exactly one class; its subclasses are separate.

Why does this behavior exist? Well, everything in Ruby is an object—even classes. That means that each class has an object of the class Class (or rather, a subclass of Class) corresponding to it. (When you say class Foo, you're really declaring a constant Foo and assigning a class object to it.) And every Ruby object can have instance variables, so class objects can have instance variables, too.

The trouble is, instance variables on class objects don't really behave the way you usually want class variables to behave. You usually want a class variable defined in a superclass to be shared with its subclasses, but that's not how instance variables work—the subclass has its own class object, and that class object has its own instance variables. So they introduced separate class variables with the behavior you're more likely to want.

In other words, class instance variables are sort of an accident of Ruby's design. You probably shouldn't use them unless you specifically know they're what you're looking for.

Palaeobotany

so class variable is like static variable in Java? – Watts

Answer 5

Official Ruby FAQ: What is the difference between class variables and class instance variables?

The main difference is the behavior concerning inheritance: class variables are shared between a class and all its subclasses, while class instance variables only belong to one specific class.

Class variables in some way can be seen as global variables within the context of an inheritance hierarchy, with all the problems that come with global variables. For instance, a class variable might (accidentally) be reassigned by any of its subclasses, affecting all other classes:

class Woof

  @@sound = "woof"

  def self.sound
    @@sound
  end
end

Woof.sound  # => "woof"

class LoudWoof < Woof
  @@sound = "WOOF"
end

LoudWoof.sound  # => "WOOF"
Woof.sound      # => "WOOF" (!)

Or, an ancestor class might later be reopened and changed, with possibly surprising effects:

class Foo

  @@var = "foo"

  def self.var
    @@var
  end
end

Foo.var  # => "foo" (as expected)

class Object
  @@var = "object"
end

Foo.var  # => "object" (!)

So, unless you exactly know what you are doing and explicitly need this kind of behavior, you better should use class instance variables.

Swint

is Object an ancestor of any other class? – Tswana

Answer 6

While it may immediately seem useful to utilize class variables, since class variable are shared among subclasses and they can be referred to within both singleton and instance methods, there is a singificant drawback. They are shared and so subclasses can change the value of the class variable, and the base class will also be affected by the change, which is usually undesirable behavior:

class C
  @@c = 'c'
  def self.c_val
    @@c
  end
end

C.c_val
 => "c" 

class D < C
end

D.instance_eval do 
  def change_c_val
    @@c = 'd'
  end
end
 => :change_c_val 

D.change_c_val
(irb):12: warning: class variable access from toplevel
 => "d" 

C.c_val
 => "d" 

Rails introduces a handy method called class_attribute. As the name implies, it declares a class-level attribute whose value is inheritable by subclasses. The class_attribute value can be accessed in both singleton and instance methods, as is the case with the class variable. However, the huge benefit with class_attribute in Rails is subclasses can change their own value and it will not impact parent class.

class C
  class_attribute :c
  self.c = 'c'
end

 C.c
 => "c" 

class D < C
end

D.c = 'd'
 => "d" 

 C.c
 => "c" 

Lukash

Good call, I hadn't used this before. It seems to work though you need to be sure to prepend self. every time you want to access the attribute c, e.g. self.c. The docs say a default: parameter can be passed to class_attribute but it doesn't seem to work due to the point I just mentioned with self. – Cumae

When you say "While it may immediately seem useful to utilize class instance variables", I think you mean "class variables", not "class instance variables right? (See ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/faq/8/.) – Mons

Yes, this answer completely confuses "class instance variables" and "class variables", which is the whole point of the question. – Culbreth

Answer 7

For those with a C++ background, you may be interested in a comparison with the C++ equivalent:

class S
{
private: // this is not quite true, in Ruby you can still access these
  static int    k = 23;
  int           s = 15;

public:
  int get_s() { return s; }
  static int get_k() { return k; }

};

std::cerr << S::k() << "\n";

S instance;
std::cerr << instance.s() << "\n";
std::cerr << instance.k() << "\n";

As we can see, k is a static like variable. This is 100% like a global variable, except that it's owned by the class (scoped to be correct). This makes it easier to avoid clashes between similarly named variables. Like any global variable, there is just one instance of that variable and modifying it is always visible by all.

On the other hand, s is an object specific value. Each object has its own instance of the value. In C++, you must create an instance to have access to that variable. In Ruby, the class definition is itself an instance of the class (in JavaScript, this is called a prototype), therefore you can access s from the class without additional instantiation. The class instance can be modified, but modification of s is going to be specific to each instance (each object of type S). So modifying one will not change the value in another.

User

Answer 8

Simple example showing

• inheritability of class variables
• encapsulation of class instance variables

NOTE: Usage of the class << self is a convenience, instead of having to prepend all the methods inside this block with self. Note: the class << self modifies self so it points to the metaclass for Parent (see https://mcmap.net/q/53200/-class-lt-lt-self-idiom-in-ruby)

Example code

class Parent
  class << self
    attr_reader :class_instance_var

    def class_instance_var=(value)
      @class_instance_var="set by #{self.name} to #{value}"
    end

    def class_var
      @@class_var
    end

    def class_var=(value)
      @@class_var = "set by #{self.name} to #{value}"
    end
  end
end

class Child < Parent
end

# use the instance separately in parent and subclass
puts "\n* Exercising class instance variable setters
* Setting Parent and Child class instance variables differently
* Parent.class_instance_var = 1000\n* Child.class_instance_var = 2000\n\n"

Parent.class_instance_var = 1000
Child.class_instance_var = 2000
puts "Parent.class_instance_var=(#{Parent.class_instance_var})"
puts "Child.class_instance_var=(#{Child.class_instance_var})"

# set class variable in via parent (changes both in parent and subclass)
puts "\n* Exercising Parent class variable setter
* Set class variable value to 3000 using parent, it changes in Child also
* Parent.class_var = 3000\n\n"

Parent.class_var = 3000
puts "Parent.class_var=(#{Parent.class_var})"
puts "Child.class_var=(#{Child.class_var})"

# set class variable in via subclass (changes both in parent and subclass)
puts "\n* Exercising Child class variable setter
* Set class variable value to 5000 using child, it changes in Parent also
* Child.class_var = 5000\n\n"

Child.class_var = 5000
puts "Parent.class_var=(#{Parent.class_var})"
puts "Child.class_var=(#{Child.class_var})"

Output using ruby v3.0.2

* Exercising class instance variable setters
* Setting Parent and Child class instance variables differently
* Parent.class_instance_var = 1000
* Child.class_instance_var = 2000

Parent.class_instance_var=(set by Parent to 1000)
Child.class_instance_var=(set by Child to 2000)

* Exercising Parent class variable setter
* Set class variable value to 3000 using parent, it changes in Child also
* Parent.class_var = 3000

Parent.class_var=(set by Parent to 3000)
Child.class_var=(set by Parent to 3000)

* Exercising Child class variable setter
* Set class variable value to 5000 using child, it changes in Parent also
* Child.class_var = 5000

Parent.class_var=(set by Child to 5000)
Child.class_var=(set by Child to 5000)

Magus