The Spaghetti Refactory Established 2015

Using `self` in Model methods

A friend recently asked me about this, and although I already knew it, I couldn't remember when I learned it, so I'm putting it in here now.

When calling another method from within a Model instance method, you don't strictly need to preface it with self:

class Person
def status
‘admin’
end

def admin?
self.status == ‘admin’ ? true : false
end
end

This works exactly the same:

class Person
def status
‘admin’
end

def admin?
status == ‘admin’ ? true : false
end
end

In fact, I almost never use self anymore in Model methods, except for readability purposes.

UPDATE: I neglected to mention the importance of using self when assigning Model attributes. See my new post for more explanation.

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