class Struct

Class Struct provides a convenient way to create a simple class that can store and fetch values.

This example creates a subclass of Struct, Struct::Customer; the first argument, a string, is the name of the subclass; the other arguments, symbols, determine the members of the new subclass.

Customer = Struct.new('Customer', :name, :address, :zip)
Customer.name       # => "Struct::Customer"
Customer.class      # => Class
Customer.superclass # => Struct

Corresponding to each member are two methods, a writer and a reader, that store and fetch values:

methods = Customer.instance_methods false
methods # => [:zip, :address=, :zip=, :address, :name, :name=]

An instance of the subclass may be created, and its members assigned values, via method ::new:

joe = Customer.new("Joe Smith", "123 Maple, Anytown NC", 12345)
joe # => #<struct Struct::Customer name="Joe Smith", address="123 Maple, Anytown NC", zip=12345>

The member values may be managed thus:

joe.name    # => "Joe Smith"
joe.name = 'Joseph Smith'
joe.name    # => "Joseph Smith"

And thus; note that member name may be expressed as either a string or a symbol:

joe[:name]  # => "Joseph Smith"
joe[:name] = 'Joseph Smith, Jr.'
joe['name'] # => "Joseph Smith, Jr."

See Struct::new.

What’s Here

First, what’s elsewhere. Class Struct:

See also Data, which is a somewhat similar, but stricter concept for defining immutable value objects.

Here, class Struct provides methods that are useful for:

Methods for Creating a Struct Subclass

Methods for Querying

Methods for Comparing

Methods for Fetching

Methods for Assigning

Methods for Iterating

Methods for Converting