How do you use global variables or constant values in Ruby?

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Variable scope in Ruby is controlled by sigils to some degree. Variables starting with $ are global, variables with @ are instance variables, @@ means class variables, and names starting with a capital letter are constants. All other variables are locals. When you open a class or method, that’s a new scope, and locals available in the previous scope aren’t available.

I generally prefer to avoid creating global variables. There are two techniques that generally achieve the same purpose that I consider cleaner:

  1. Create a constant in a module. So in this case, you would put all the classes that need the offset in the module Foo and create a constant Offset, so then all the classes could access Foo::Offset.

  2. Define a method to access the value. You can define the method globally, but again, I think it’s better to encapsulate it in a module or class. This way the data is available where you need it and you can even alter it if you need to, but the structure of your program and the ownership of the data will be clearer. This is more in line with OO design principles.

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