Methods

To avoid duplication of the same message, instead of using a variable we can define a method and call it multiple times.

A method definition is indicated by the keyword def followed by the method name. Every expression until the keyword end is part of the method body.

def say_hello
  puts "Hello Penny!"
end

say_hello
say_hello
say_hello() # syntactically equivalent method call with parenthesis

Tip

Method calls are unambiguously indicated by parenthesis after the name, but it can be omitted. It would only be necessary for disambiguation, for example if say_hello was also a local variable.

Arguments

What if we want to greet different people, but all in the same manner? Instead of writing individual messages, we can define a method that allows customization through a parameter. A parameter is like a local variable inside the method body. Parameters are declared after the method name in parenthesis. When calling a method, you can pass in arguments which are mapped as values for the method's parameters.

def say_hello(recipient)
  puts "Hello #{recipient}!"
end

say_hello "World"
say_hello "Crystal"

Tip

Arguments at method calls are typically placed in parenthesis, but it can often be omitted. say_hello "World" and say_hello("World") are syntactically equivalent.

It's generally recommended to use parenthesis because it avoids ambiguity. But they're often omitted if the expression reads like natural language.

Default arguments

Arguments can be assigned a default value. It is used in case the argument is missing in the method call. Usually, arguments are mandatory but when there's a default value, it can be omitted.

def say_hello(recipient = "World")
  puts "Hello #{recipient}!"
end

say_hello
say_hello "Crystal"

Type Restrictions

Our example method expects recipient to be a String. But any other type would work as well. Try say_hello 6 for example.

This isn't necessarily a problem for this method. Using any other type would be valid code. But semantically we want to greet people with a name as a String.

Type restrictions limit the allowed type of an argument. They come after the argument name, separated by a colon:

def say_hello(recipient : String)
  puts "Hello #{recipient}!"
end

say_hello "World"
say_hello "Crystal"

# Now this expression doesn't compile:
# say_hello 6

Now names cannot be numbers or other data types anymore. This doesn't mean you can't greet people with a number as a name. The number just needs to be expressed as a string. Try say_hello "6" for example.

Overloading

Restricting the type of an argument can be used for positional overloading. When a method has an unrestricted argument like say_hello(recipient), all calls to a method say_hello go to that method. But with overloading several methods of the same name can exist with different argument type restrictions. Each call is routed to the most fitting overload.

# This methods greets *recipient*.
def say_hello(recipient : String)
  puts "Hello #{recipient}!"
end

# This method greets *times* times.
def say_hello(times : Int32)
  puts "Hello " * times
end

say_hello "World"
say_hello 3

Overloading is not only defined by type restrictions. The number of arguments as well as named arguments are also relevant characteristics.