How can I access a variable defined in a Ruby file I required in IRB?

Question

The file welcome.rb contains:

welcome_message = \"hi there\"

But in IRB, I can\'t access the variable I just created:

Answer 1

You can't access local variables defined in the included file. You can use ivars:

# in welcome.rb
@welcome_message = 'hi there!'

# and then, in irb:
require 'welcome'
puts @welcome_message
#=>hi there!