Including a Ruby class from a separate file

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For a while I had been including an entire class inside of a Ruby module. Apparently this is not what I am supposed to do. It appears that the point of a module is to store functions which can then be included as methods in a new class.

I don't want this. I have a class that I want to keep in a separate file which I can access from other files. How can I do this?

Thanks.

module class ruby
4 Answers

Modules serve a dual purpose as a holder for functions and as a namespace. Keeping classes in modules is perfectly acceptable. To put a class in a separate file, just define the class as usual and then in the file where you wish to use the class, simply put require 'name_of_file_with_class' at the top. For instance, if I defined class Foo in foo.rb, in bar.rb I would have the line require 'foo'.

If you are using Rails, this include often happens automagically

Edit: clarification of file layout

#file: foo.rb
class Foo
  def initialize
    puts "foo"
  end
end

...

#file: bar.rb
require 'foo'

Foo.new

If you are in Rails, put these classes in lib/ and use the naming convention for the files of lowercase underscored version of the class name, e.g. Foo -> foo.rb, FooBar -> foo_bar.rb, etc.

As of ruby version 1.9 you can use require_relative, to require files relatively to the file you are editing.

user_1244140
user_84015170

When Using Require, inside the string indicate the full path name of the class you are refereing to unless its in the Root Folder of Ruby

user_101838580 
MyApp
|_ app
|_ bin
|_ etc, etc
root_level_file.rb

You can just do: require './root_level_file'.

RootLevelFile.new

user_66396490
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