What is the difference between a constant and a variable in Ruby?

Question

So, I\'m doing a Ruby course on CodeAcademy and I\'m stuck in differentiating the difference between a variable and a class. Can someone please explain the difference to me?

Answer 1

• A variable can change its value, it can vary.
• A constant cannot change its value, it is constant.

In Ruby things are a bit more complex though. You can reassign the value of constants, but it will print a warning. This is meant to be used for debugging only and the general principle still applies that constants are meant to be used for values that never change.