Using `self` in Model methods

19 Mar 2015 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.