Variables and types

If you are new to programming, then just for a quick reference: a variable is nothing, but a memory location where we can save some data. This memory location can be easily referenced by a name and that name is called the variable name. Many languages such as C, Java, and so on, force you to declare variables before you use them, and they also expect you to specify the type associated with the variable. For example. if you want to store a number in the memory in a C program, you'd say the following:

int x = 10;

This will create a 2 byte memory space and that memory space will contain a binary associated with 10. The memory location where 10 is stored can be referenced through a variable name called x.

Ruby, on the other hand, is pretty lenient and it doesn't expect you to specify data type associated with a variable. Ruby, hence, belongs to a family of programming languages that are called dynamically typed languages. Unlike strongly typed languages, dynamic languages do...