Explain private methods?

[Gaba Luschi]

Hi,
When you use the word "private" to clear private methods - what does it
mean that only code within the object's methods can access those private
methods? Can someone give me a simple example of this?

Thanks!

 

[Ben Bleything]

When you use the word "private" to clear private methods - what does it
mean that only code within the object's methods can access those private
methods? =A0Can someone give me a simple example of this?

That's basically correct, yes. Technically it means that the method
cannot be called with an explicit receiver:

class Foo
def pub
return "public method"
end

def call_priv
priv
end

def call_priv_explicitly
self.priv
end

private
def priv
return "private method"
end
end

f =3D Foo.new
f.pub
# =3D> "public method"

f.priv
# =3D> private method `priv' called for #<Foo:0x10016a1b0> (NoMethodError)

f.call_priv
# =3D> "private method"

f.call_priv_explicitly
# =3D> private method `priv' called for #<Foo:0x100169b98> (NoMethodError)