Static variables / instances in ruby

Question

I am new to Ruby. You have a very simple question about static and instance variables.

class Test def self.init @@var_static = 1 @member = 2 end def self.print puts "@@var_static: #{@@var_static}" puts "@member: #{@member}" end end Test.init Test.print 

Why does the above code initialize the member variable: @member, inside the static method: Test :: init? My understanding was that using @member will throw an error because it is not bound to any instance of the Test class. But the error does not occur.

Answer 1

A class is an instance of an object, although it can have instance variables, like any other object:

 >> Fixnum.class => Class 

Fixnum class is an instance of Class !

Answer 2

Good article explaining this here: http://railstips.org/blog/archives/2006/11/18/class-and-instance-variables-in-ruby/