Saving and calling multiple variables from ruby method

Question

Maybe I've been staring at my Ruby book to the point where words don't mean anything anymore, but I thought I might as well ask.

What I'm looking to do is, rather than passing a bulk of variables through my function headers, or instead of using global variables, I'm looking to save my variables within a method, and call upon them at multiple times, throughout my functions. What I'm realistically having an issue with, is scope.

def DateGrab()
 print "\nEnter the date you're looking for (Month/Day): "
 longdate = gets.strip.split(/\/| /)
 if longdate[0].length > 3
   month = longdate[0].slice(0..2)
 else
   month = longdate[0]
 end
  day = longdate[1]
  year = `date | awk '{print $6}'`.strip
  grepdate = "#{day}/#{month}/#{year}"
  date = Date.parse("#{day}-#{month}-#{year}").strftime('%m%d%Y').strip
end

I'm looking to pass "grepdate" and "date" through multiple functions, and I feel that using a method would be easier, but every time I try to call the variable, I get a "undefined local variable or method" error.

Answer 1

You want to look at instance variables. You can set them via @grepdate = "something" These instance variables are accessible throughout your class and in all methods of that class.