Discover Ruby's simplicity and power through hands-on practice. Gain insights into variables, built-in classes, objects, and more, making you productive and happy with programming.

Do you want to learn about interpreted languages? Tired of dense syntaxes? Tired of compiling code to machine language first? Are you looking for an easy-to-use scripting language? Well, Ruby is the answer!

Ruby is a smart, easy-to-use, functional, object-oriented programming language, a wondrous mix of Perl's scripting power, Pythonic capabilities, and more! As Matsumoto, creator of Ruby, implies: "I hope to see Ruby help every programmer in the world to be productive, and to enjoy programming, and to be happy. That is the primary purpose of Ruby language."

This introductory course provides hands-on practice with the support of interactive illustrations, exercises, and the integral topics of variables, built-in classes, objects, conditionals, blocks, and more!

Ready to dive into one of the most influential and demanding third-generation programming languages? Let's get started!

Learn Ruby from Scratch

Is it possible to have a conditional statement that has an `elsif` branch but not an `else` branch?

Is it possible to have a conditional statement that has an <code>elsif</code> branch but not an <code>else</code> branch?

What’s the output of the following code?

```ruby
num = 5

if nil
  puts "if"
elsif num
  puts "elsif" 
else 
  puts "else"
end
```


What’s the output of the following code?
<pre><code class="language-ruby">num = 5

if nil
 puts &quot;if&quot;
elsif num
 puts &quot;elsif&quot; 
else 
 puts &quot;else&quot;
end
</code></pre>

What’s the output of the following code?

```ruby
def test()
  if true
    1
  else
    2
  end
end

puts test
```

What’s the output of the following code?
<pre><code class="language-ruby">def test()
 if true
 1
 else
 2
 end
end

puts test
</code></pre>

The Big Picture

Variables

Built-in Class: Numeric

Built-in Class: String

Built-in Classes: TrueClass, FalseClass, and NilClass

Built-in Class: Symbol

Built-in Class: Array

Built-in Class: Hash

Objects

Methods

Operators are Methods

Blocks

Get Ready for Some More Drill!

Conditionals

Coding Challenge: Truthiness and Equivalence

Lets Run Another Lap with Hashes

Writing Classes

The Mailbox Project

Spotlight on Things Unremarked

Advanced Topics

Your Toolkit

Appendix: Mailbox Project Prerequisite

Quiz on Conditionals