Using variables in Ruby

Imagine that you want to send a letter to a friend across the country. Prior to the days of email you would write the letter and place it inside an envelope. Now, the envelope is not the letter itself, instead, envelopes simply hold the letters and allow them to be carried to their destination. In the same way, variables are like envelopes. They store the following:

• Words (also called strings)
• Integers
• Methods
• Collections

The variables themselves are the storage mechanisms for data in Ruby programs. They allow developers to store information in the code and then retrieve the information later on.