How to Use the Ruby clone Method

09/23/2021

Contents

In this article, you will learn how to use the Ruby clone method.

Using the clone method

The clone method in Ruby creates a new object that is a copy of the original object. It creates a shallow copy, meaning that it copies only the object’s immediate values, such as numbers and strings, and not the objects referred to by instance variables.

Here are the basic steps to use the clone method in Ruby:

  • Create an object that you want to clone. For example, let’s create a class called Person with instance variables @name and @age:

    class Person
  attr_accessor :name, :age
  
  def initialize(name, age)
    @name = name
    @age = age
  end
end

person1 = Person.new("John", 30)

  • Clone the object using the clone method. The clone method is called on the object you want to clone. For example, let’s clone person1:

    person2 = person1.clone

  • Modify the cloned object. You can modify the cloned object without affecting the original object. For example, let’s change the name of person2:

    person2.name = "Jane"

  • Verify that the original object is unchanged. You can verify that the original object is unchanged by printing its values. For example:

    puts person1.name    # Output: John
puts person1.age     # Output: 30

    And the cloned object has the new name value:

    puts person2.name    # Output: Jane
puts person2.age     # Output: 30

    Note that the clone method creates a new object with a new object ID. The cloned object is not equal to the original object, but its attributes have the same values as the original object.

#Ruby