What is a class in Ruby language?

A class in Ruby is a template or blueprint for creating objects. It defines the structure (data/attributes) and behavior (methods) that instances of this class will have.

Key features:

• Encapsulation: Combines data and methods that operate on this data into a single entity.
• Inheritance: Allows creating new classes (subclasses) based on existing ones (superclasses), inheriting their characteristics and behavior.
• Polymorphism: Enables objects of different classes to respond to the same method call in a way specific to their type.

Example of a simple class:

class Dog
  # Class constructor
  def initialize(name, breed)
    @name = name # Instance attribute
    @breed = breed # Instance attribute
  end

  # Instance method
  def bark
    "#{@name} says Woof!"
  end

  # Getter for attribute
  def name
    @name
  end
end

# Creating an instance of the class (object)
my_dog = Dog.new("Bobby", "Mixed")

# Calling an instance method
puts my_dog.bark # Output: Bobby says Woof!
puts my_dog.name # Output: Bobby

Classes in Ruby are first-class objects, and they can also be modified dynamically.