Ruby / Rails syntax

Question

How does this syntax work?

before_validation { |user| user.email = email.downcase }

I would think that it would need to be this:

before_validation { |user| user.email = user.email.downcase }

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

It work because

before_validation { |user| user.email = email.downcase }

SAME AS

before_validation { |user| user.email = self.email.downcase }

Answer 2

It works, but keep the DRY principle of Ruby. This would be better:

before_validation { |user| user.email.downcase! }

! reflects the changes back onto the receiving object and it also saves a few keystrokes.