A Slice structure maps to a Ruby class with the same name. For each Slice data member, the Ruby class contains a corresponding instance variable as well as accessors to read and write its value. For example, here is our Employee structure once more:
struct Employee {
long number;
string firstName;
string lastName;
};
The Ruby mapping generates the following definition for this structure:
class Employee
def initialize(number=0, firstName='', lastName='')
@number = number
@firstName = firstName
@lastName = lastName
end
def hash
# ...
end
def ==
# ...
end
def inspect
# ...
end
attr_accessor :number, :firstName, :lastName
end
The constructor initializes each of the instance variables to a default value appropriate for its type. You can also declare different default values for members of primitive and enumerated types.
The compiler generates a definition for the hash method, which allows instances to be used as keys in a hash collection. The hash method returns a hash value for the structure based on the value of its data members.
The == method returns true if all members of two structures are (recursively) equal.
The inspect method returns a string representation of the structure.