Defining a method in Rubymine returns "undefined method" error

Question

I am executing a class with only this code in rubymine:

def saythis(x)
  puts x
end
saythis('words')

It returns an error: undefined method `saythis', rather than printing the string 'words'. What am I missing here? Replicating this code in irb prints the string 'words'.

Answer 1

I assume you wrote a class like the one below and did not write that code into a irb console. The problem is that you define an instance method, but try to call the method from the class level.

class Foo
  def say_this(x)      # <= defines an instance method
    puts x
  end
  say_this('words')    # <= calls a class method
end

There a two ways to "fix" this:

1. Define a class method instead of an instance method: def self.say_this(x)
2. Call the instance method instead of the class method call: new.say_this(x)