The Ruby Style Guide

The Ruby Style Guide

This Ruby style guide recommends best practices so that real-world Ruby programmers can write code that can be maintained by other real-world Ruby programmers. A style guide that reflects real-world usage gets used, and a style guide that holds to an ideal that has been rejected by the people it is supposed to help risks not getting used at all – no matter how good it is.

The guide is separated into several sections of related rules. I've tried to add the rationale behind the rules (if it's omitted I've assumed that is pretty obvious).

I didn't come up with all the rules out of nowhere - they are mostly based on my extensive career as a professional software engineer, feedback and suggestions from members of the Ruby community and various highly regarded Ruby programming resources, such as "Programming Ruby 1.9" and "The Ruby Programming Language".

The guide is still a work in progress - some rules are lacking examples, some rules don't have examples that illustrate them clearly enough. In due time these issues will be addressed - just keep them in mind for now.

You can generate a PDF or an HTML copy of this guide using Transmuter.

The rubocop project aims to provide an automated way to check whether a Ruby code base complies with the style guide. Currently it's far from being production ready and it's missing lots of features. Everyone is naturally invited to help improve it!

Translations of the guide are available in the following languages:

Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional
French

Table of Contents

Source Code Layout
Syntax
Naming
Comments
Comment Annotations
Classes
Exceptions
Collections
Strings
Regular Expressions
Percent Literals
Metaprogramming
Misc

Source Code Layout

Nearly everybody is convinced that every style but their own is ugly and unreadable. Leave out the "but their own" and they're probably right...
-- Jerry Coffin (on indentation)

Use UTF-8 as the source file encoding.

Use two spaces per indentation level. No hard tabs.

# good
def some_method
do_something
end

# bad - four spaces
def some_method
do_something
end

Use Unix-style line endings. (*BSD/Solaris/Linux/OSX users are covered by default, Windows users have to be extra careful.)

If you're using Git you might want to add the following configuration setting to protect your project from Windows line endings creeping in:

$ git config --global core.autocrlf true

Use spaces around operators, after commas, colons and semicolons, around { and before }. Whitespace might be (mostly) irrelevant to the Ruby interpreter, but its proper use is the key to writing easily readable code.

sum = 1 + 2
a, b = 1, 2
1 > 2 ? true : false; puts 'Hi'
[1, 2, 3].each { |e| puts e }

The only exception is when using the exponent operator:

# bad
e = M * c ** 2

# good
e = M * c**2

No spaces after (, [ or before ], ).

some(arg).other
[1, 2, 3].length

Indent when as deep as case. I know that many would disagree with this one, but it's the style established in both "The Ruby Programming Language" and "Programming Ruby".

case
when song.name == 'Misty'
puts 'Not again!'
when song.duration > 120
puts 'Too long!'
when Time.now.hour > 21
puts "It's too late"
else
song.play
end

kind = case year
when 1850..1889 then 'Blues'
when 1890..1909 then 'Ragtime'
when 1910..1929 then 'New Orleans Jazz'
when 1930..1939 then 'Swing'
when 1940..1950 then 'Bebop'
else 'Jazz'
end

Use empty lines between defs and to break up a method into logical paragraphs.

def some_method
data = initialize(options)

data.manipulate!

data.result
end

def some_method
result
end

Align the parameters of a method call if they span more than one line.

# starting point (line is too long)
def send_mail(source)
Mailer.deliver(to: 'bob@example.com', from: 'us@example.com', subject: 'Important message', body: source.text)
end

# bad (normal indent)
def send_mail(source)
Mailer.deliver(
to: 'bob@example.com',
from: 'us@example.com',
subject: 'Important message',
body: source.text)
end

# bad (double indent)
def send_mail(source)
Mailer.deliver(
to: 'bob@example.com',
from: 'us@example.com',
subject: 'Important message',
body: source.text)
end

# good
def send_mail(source)
Mailer.deliver(to: 'bob@example.com',
from: 'us@example.com',
subject: 'Important message',
body: source.text)
end

Add underscores to large numeric literals to improve their readability.

# bad - how many 0s are there?
num = 1000000

# good - much easier to parse for the human brain
num = 1_000_000

Use RDoc and its conventions for API documentation. Don't put an empty line between the comment block and the def.

Limit lines to 80 characters.

Avoid trailing whitespace.

Syntax

Use def with parentheses when there are arguments. Omit the parentheses when the method doesn't accept any arguments.

def some_method
# body omitted
end

def some_method_with_arguments(arg1, arg2)
# body omitted
end

Never use for, unless you know exactly why. Most of the time iterators should be used instead. for is implemented in terms of each (so you're adding a level of indirection), but with a twist - for doesn't introduce a new scope (unlike each) and variables defined in its block will be visible outside it.

arr = [1, 2, 3]

# bad
for elem in arr do
puts elem
end

# good
arr.each { |elem| puts elem }

Never use then for multi-line if/unless.

# bad
if some_condition then
# body omitted
end

# good
if some_condition
# body omitted
end

Favor the ternary operator(?:) over if/then/else/end constructs. It's more common and obviously more concise.

# bad
result = if some_condition then something else something_else end

# good
result = some_condition ? something : something_else

Use one expression per branch in a ternary operator. This also means that ternary operators must not be nested. Prefer if/else constructs in these cases.

# bad
some_condition ? (nested_condition ? nested_something : nested_something_else) : something_else

# good
if some_condition
nested_condition ? nested_something : nested_something_else
else
something_else
end

Never use if x: ... - as of Ruby 1.9 it has been removed. Use the ternary operator instead.

# bad
result = if some_condition: something else something_else end

# good
result = some_condition ? something : something_else

Never use if x; .... Use the ternary operator instead.

Use when x then ... for one-line cases. The alternative syntax when x: ... has been removed as of Ruby 1.9.

Never use when x; .... See the previous rule.

Use &&/|| for boolean expressions, and/or for control flow. (Rule of thumb: If you have to use outer parentheses, you are using the wrong operators.)

# boolean expression
if some_condition && some_other_condition
do_something
end

# control flow
document.saved? or document.save!

Avoid multi-line ?: (the ternary operator); use if/unless instead.

Favor modifier if/unless usage when you have a single-line body. Another good alternative is the usage of control flow and/or.

# bad
if some_condition
do_something
end

# good
do_something if some_condition

# another good option
some_condition and do_something

Favor unless over if for negative conditions (or control flow or).

# bad
do_something if !some_condition

# good
do_something unless some_condition

# another good option
some_condition or do_something

Never use unless with else. Rewrite these with the positive case first.

# bad
unless success?
puts 'failure'
else
puts 'success'
end

# good
if success?
puts 'success'
else
puts 'failure'
end

Don't use parentheses around the condition of an if/unless/while, unless the condition contains an assignment (see "Using the return value of =" below).

# bad
if (x > 10)
# body omitted
end

# good
if x > 10
# body omitted
end

# ok
if (x = self.next_value)
# body omitted
end

Favor modifier while/until usage when you have a single-line body.

# bad
while some_condition
do_something
end

# good
do_something while some_condition

Favor until over while for negative conditions.

# bad
do_something while !some_condition

# good
do_something until some_condition

Use Kernel#loop with break rather than begin/end/until or begin/end/while for post-loop tests.

# bad
begin
puts val
val += 1
end while val < 0

# good
loop do
puts val
val += 1
break unless val < 0
end

Omit parentheses around parameters for methods that are part of an internal DSL (e.g. Rake, Rails, RSpec), methods that have "keyword" status in Ruby (e.g. attr_reader, puts) and attribute access methods. Use parentheses around the arguments of all other method invocations.

class Person
attr_reader :name, :age

# omitted
end

temperance = Person.new('Temperance', 30)
temperance.name

puts temperance.age

x = Math.sin(y)
array.delete(e)

Prefer {...} over do...end for single-line blocks. Avoid using {...} for multi-line blocks (multiline chaining is always ugly). Always use do...end for "control flow" and "method definitions" (e.g. in Rakefiles and certain DSLs). Avoid do...end when chaining.

names = ['Bozhidar', 'Steve', 'Sarah']

# good
names.each { |name| puts name }

# bad
names.each do |name|
puts name
end

# good
names.select { |name| name.start_with?('S') }.map { |name| name.upcase }

# bad
names.select do |name|
name.start_with?('S')
end.map { |name| name.upcase }

Some will argue that multiline chaining would look OK with the use of {...}, but they should ask themselves - is this code really readable and can the blocks' contents be extracted into nifty methods?

Avoid return where not required for flow of control.

# bad
def some_method(some_arr)
return some_arr.size
end

# good
def some_method(some_arr)
some_arr.size
end

Avoid self where not required. (It is only required when calling a self write accessor.)

# bad
def ready?
if self.last_reviewed_at > self.last_updated_at
self.worker.update(self.content, self.options)
self.status = :in_progress
end
self.status == :verified
end

# good
def ready?
if last_reviewed_at > last_updated_at
worker.update(content, options)
self.status = :in_progress
end
status == :verified
end

As a corollary, avoid shadowing methods with local variables unless they are both equivalent.

class Foo
attr_accessor :options

# ok
def initialize(options)
self.options = options
# both options and self.options are equivalent here
end

# bad
def do_something(options = {})
unless options[:when] == :later
output(self.options[:message])
end
end

# good
def do_something(params = {})
unless params[:when] == :later
output(options[:message])
end
end
end

Use spaces around the = operator when assigning default values to method parameters:

# bad
def some_method(arg1=:default, arg2=nil, arg3=[])
# do something...
end

# good
def some_method(arg1 = :default, arg2 = nil, arg3 = [])
# do something...
end

While several Ruby books suggest the first style, the second is much more prominent in practice (and arguably a bit more readable).

Avoid line continuation (\) where not required. In practice, avoid using line continuations at all.

# bad
result = 1 - \
2

# good (but still ugly as hell)
result = 1 \
- 2

Don't use the return value of = (an assignment) in conditional expressions.

# bad (+ a warning)
if (v = array.grep(/foo/))
do_something(v)
...
end

# bad (+ a warning)
if v = array.grep(/foo/)
do_something(v)
...
end

# good
v = array.grep(/foo/)
if v
do_something(v)
...
end

Use ||= freely to initialize variables.

# set name to Bozhidar, only if it's nil or false
name ||= 'Bozhidar'

Don't use ||= to initialize boolean variables. (Consider what would happen if the current value happened to be false.)

# bad - would set enabled to true even if it was false
enabled ||= true

# good
enabled = true if enabled.nil?

Avoid using Perl-style special variables (like $0-9, $, etc. ). They are quite cryptic and their use in anything but one-liner scripts is discouraged.

Never put a space between a method name and the opening parenthesis.

# bad
f (3 + 2) + 1

# good
f(3 + 2) + 1

If the first argument to a method begins with an open parenthesis, always use parentheses in the method invocation. For example, write f((3 + 2) + 1).

Always run the Ruby interpreter with the -w option so it will warn you if you forget either of the rules above!

Use the new lambda literal syntax.

# bad
lambda = lambda { |a, b| a + b }
lambda.call(1, 2)

# good
lambda = ->(a, b) { a + b }
lambda.(1, 2)

Use _ for unused block parameters.

# bad
result = hash.map { |k, v| v + 1 }

# good
result = hash.map { |_, v| v + 1 }

Naming

The only real difficulties in programming are cache invalidation and naming things.
-- Phil Karlton

Name identifiers in English.

# bad - variable name written in Bulgarian with latin characters
zaplata = 1000

# good
salary = 1000

Use snake_case for symbols, methods and variables.

# bad
:'some symbol'
:SomeSymbol
:someSymbol

someVar = 5

def someMethod
...
end

def SomeMethod
...
end

# good
:some_symbol

def some_method
...
end

Use CamelCase for classes and modules. (Keep acronyms like HTTP, RFC, XML uppercase.)

# bad
class Someclass
...
end

class Some_Class
...
end

class SomeXml
...
end

# good
class SomeClass
...
end

class SomeXML
...
end

Use SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE for other constants.

# bad
SomeConst = 5

# good
SOME_CONST = 5

The names of predicate methods (methods that return a boolean value) should end in a question mark. (i.e. Array#empty?).

The names of potentially dangerous methods (i.e. methods that modify self or the arguments, exit! (doesn't run the finalizers like exit does), etc.) should end with an exclamation mark if there exists a safe version of that dangerous method.

# bad - there is not matching 'safe' method
class Person
def update!
end
end

# good
class Person
def update
end
end

# good
class Person
def update!
end

def update
end
end

Define the non-bang (safe) method in terms of the bang (dangerous) one if possible.

class Array
def flatten_once!
res = []

each do |e|
[*e].each { |f| res << f }
end

replace(res)
end

def flatten_once
dup.flatten_once!
end
end

When using reduce with short blocks, name the arguments |a, e| (accumulator, element).

When defining binary operators, name the argument other.

def +(other)
# body omitted
end

Prefer map over collect, find over detect, select over find_all, reduce over inject and size over length. This is not a hard requirement; if the use of the alias enhances readability, it's ok to use it. The rhyming methods are inherited from Smalltalk and are not common in other programming languages. The reason the use of select is encouraged over find_all is that it goes together nicely with reject and its name is pretty self-explanatory.

Use flat_map instead of map + flatten. This does not apply for arrays with a depth greater than 2, i.e. if users.first.songs == ['a', ['b','c']], then use map + flatten rather than flat_map. flat_map flattens the array by 1, whereas flatten flattens it all the way.

# bad
all_songs = users.map(&:songs).flatten.uniq

# good
all_songs = users.flat_map(&:songs).uniq

Comments

Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?" Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.
-- Steve McConnell

Write self-documenting code and ignore the rest of this section. Seriously!
Write comments in English.
Comments longer than a word are capitalized and use punctuation. Use one space after periods.

Avoid superfluous comments.

# bad
counter += 1 # increments counter by one

Keep existing comments up-to-date. An outdated comment is worse than no comment at all.

Good code is like a good joke - it needs no explanation.
-- Russ Olsen

Avoid writing comments to explain bad code. Refactor the code to make it self-explanatory. (Do or do not - there is no try. --Yoda)

Comment Annotations

Annotations should usually be written on the line immediately above the relevant code.
The annotation keyword is followed by a colon and a space, then a note describing the problem.

If multiple lines are required to describe the problem, subsequent lines should be indented two spaces after the #.

def bar
# FIXME: This has crashed occasionally since v3.2.1. It may
# be related to the BarBazUtil upgrade.
baz(:quux)
end

In cases where the problem is so obvious that any documentation would be redundant, annotations may be left at the end of the offending line with no note. This usage should be the exception and not the rule.

def bar
sleep 100 # OPTIMIZE
end

Use TODO to note missing features or functionality that should be added at a later date.

Use FIXME to note broken code that needs to be fixed.

Use OPTIMIZE to note slow or inefficient code that may cause performance problems.

Use HACK to note code smells where questionable coding practices were used and should be refactored away.

Use REVIEW to note anything that should be looked at to confirm it is working as intended. For example: REVIEW: Are we sure this is how the client does X currently?

Use other custom annotation keywords if it feels appropriate, but be sure to document them in your project's README or similar.

Classes

Use a consistent structure in your class definitions.

class Person
# extend and include go first
extend SomeModule
include AnotherModule

# constants are next
SOME_CONSTANT = 20

# afterwards we have attribute macros
attr_reader :name

# followed by other macros (if any)
validates :name

# public class methods are next in line
def self.some_method
end

# followed by public instance methods
def some_method
end

# protected and private methods are grouped near the end
protected

def some_protected_method
end

private

def some_private_method
end
end

When designing class hierarchies make sure that they conform to the Liskov Substitution Principle.

Try to make your classes as SOLID as possible.

Always supply a proper to_s method for classes that represent domain objects.

class Person
attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

def initialize(first_name, last_name)
@first_name = first_name
@last_name = last_name
end

def to_s
"#{@first_name} #{@last_name}"
end
end

Use the attr family of functions to define trivial accessors or mutators.

# bad
class Person
def initialize(first_name, last_name)
@first_name = first_name
@last_name = last_name
end

def first_name
@first_name
end

def last_name
@last_name
end
end

# good
class Person
attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

def initialize(first_name, last_name)
@first_name = first_name
@last_name = last_name
end
end

Consider using Struct.new, which defines the trivial accessors, constructor and comparison operators for you.

# good
class Person
attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

def initialize(first_name, last_name)
@first_name = first_name
@last_name = last_name
end
end

# better
Person = Struct.new(:first_name, :last_name) do
end

Don't extend a Struct.new - it already is a new class. Extending it introduces a superfluous class level and may also introduce weird errors if the file is required multiple times.

Consider adding factory methods to provide additional sensible ways to create instances of a particular class.

class Person
def self.create(options_hash)
# body omitted
end
end

Prefer duck-typing over inheritance.

# bad
class Animal
# abstract method
def speak
end
end

# extend superclass
class Duck < Animal
def speak
puts 'Quack! Quack'
end
end

# extend superclass
class Dog < Animal
def speak
puts 'Bau! Bau!'
end
end

# good
class Duck
def speak
puts 'Quack! Quack'
end
end

class Dog
def speak
puts 'Bau! Bau!'
end
end

Avoid the usage of class (@@) variables due to their "nasty" behavior in inheritance.

class Parent
@@class_var = 'parent'

def self.print_class_var
puts @@class_var
end
end

class Child < Parent
@@class_var = 'child'
end

Parent.print_class_var # => will print "child"

As you can see all the classes in a class hierarchy actually share one class variable. Class instance variables should usually be preferred over class variables.

Assign proper visibility levels to methods (private, protected) in accordance with their intended usage. Don't go off leaving everything public (which is the default). After all we're coding in Ruby now, not in Python.

Indent the public, protected, and private methods as much the method definitions they apply to. Leave one blank line above the visibility modifier and one blank line below in order to emphasize that it applies to all methods below it.

class SomeClass
def public_method
# ...
end

private

def private_method
# ...
end

def another_private_method
# ...
end
end

Use def self.method to define singleton methods. This makes the code easier to refactor since the class name is not repeated.

class TestClass
# bad
def TestClass.some_method
# body omitted
end

# good
def self.some_other_method
# body omitted
end

# Also possible and convenient when you
# have to define many singleton methods.
class << self
def first_method
# body omitted
end

def second_method_etc
# body omitted
end
end
end

Exceptions

Signal exceptions using the fail method. Use raise only when catching an exception and re-raising it (because here you're not failing, but explicitly and purposefully raising an exception).

begin
fail 'Oops';
rescue => error
raise if error.message != 'Oops'
end

Never return from an ensure block. If you explicitly return from a method inside an ensure block, the return will take precedence over any exception being raised, and the method will return as if no exception had been raised at all. In effect, the exception will be silently thrown away.

def foo
begin
fail
ensure
return 'very bad idea'
end
end

Use implicit begin blocks where possible.

# bad
def foo
begin
# main logic goes here
rescue
# failure handling goes here
end
end

# good
def foo
# main logic goes here
rescue
# failure handling goes here
end

Mitigate the proliferation of begin blocks by using contingency methods (a term coined by Avdi Grimm).

# bad
begin
something_that_might_fail
rescue IOError
# handle IOError
end

begin
something_else_that_might_fail
rescue IOError
# handle IOError
end

# good
def with_io_error_handling
yield
rescue IOError
# handle IOError
end

with_io_error_handling { something_that_might_fail }

with_io_error_handling { something_else_that_might_fail }

Don't suppress exceptions.

# bad
begin
# an exception occurs here
rescue SomeError
# the rescue clause does absolutely nothing
end

# bad
do_something rescue nil

Avoid using rescue in its modifier form.

# bad - this catches all StandardError exceptions
do_something rescue nil

Don't use exceptions for flow of control.

# bad
begin
n / d
rescue ZeroDivisionError
puts 'Cannot divide by 0!'
end

# good
if d.zero?
puts 'Cannot divide by 0!'
else
n / d
end

Avoid rescuing the Exception class. This will trap signals and calls to exit, requiring you to kill -9 the process.

# bad
begin
# calls to exit and kill signals will be caught (except kill -9)
exit
rescue Exception
puts "you didn't really want to exit, right?"
# exception handling
end

# good
begin
# a blind rescue rescues from StandardError, not Exception as many
# programmers assume.
rescue => e
# exception handling
end

# also good
begin
# an exception occurs here

rescue StandardError => e
# exception handling
end

Put more specific exceptions higher up the rescue chain, otherwise they'll never be rescued from.

# bad
begin
# some code
rescue Exception => e
# some handling
rescue StandardError => e
# some handling
end

# good
begin
# some code
rescue StandardError => e
# some handling
rescue Exception => e
# some handling
end

Release external resources obtained by your program in an ensure block.

f = File.open('testfile')
begin
# .. process
rescue
# .. handle error
ensure
f.close unless f.nil?
end

Favor the use of exceptions for the standard library over introducing new exception classes.

Collections

Prefer literal array and hash creation notation (unless you need to pass parameters to their constructors, that is).

# bad
arr = Array.new
hash = Hash.new

# good
arr = []
hash = {}

Prefer %w to the literal array syntax when you need an array of strings.

# bad
STATES = ['draft', 'open', 'closed']

# good
STATES = %w(draft open closed)

Avoid the creation of huge gaps in arrays.

arr = []
arr[100] = 1 # now you have an array with lots of nils

Use Set instead of Array when dealing with unique elements. Set implements a collection of unordered values with no duplicates. This is a hybrid of Array's intuitive inter-operation facilities and Hash's fast lookup.

Prefer symbols instead of strings as hash keys.

# bad
hash = { 'one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3 }

# good
hash = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 }

Avoid the use of mutable objects as hash keys.

Use the hash literal syntax when your hash keys are symbols.

# bad
hash = { :one => 1, :two => 2, :three => 3 }

# good
hash = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 }

Use fetch when dealing with hash keys that should be present.

heroes = { batman: 'Bruce Wayne', superman: 'Clark Kent' }
# bad - if we make a mistake we might not spot it right away
heroes[:batman] # => "Bruce Wayne"
heroes[:supermann] # => nil

# good - fetch raises a KeyError making the problem obvious
heroes.fetch(:supermann)

Rely on the fact that as of Ruby 1.9 hashes are ordered.

Never modify a collection while traversing it.

Strings

Prefer string interpolation instead of string concatenation:

# bad
email_with_name = user.name + ' <' + user.email + '>'

# good
email_with_name = "#{user.name} <#{user.email}>"

Consider padding string interpolation code with space. It more clearly sets the code apart from the string.

"#{ user.last_name }, #{ user.first_name }"

Prefer single-quoted strings when you don't need string interpolation or special symbols such as \t, \n, ', etc.

# bad
name = "Bozhidar"

# good
name = 'Bozhidar'

Don't leave out {} around instance and global variables being interpolated into a string.

class Person
attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

def initialize(first_name, last_name)
@first_name = first_name
@last_name = last_name
end

# bad - valid, but awkward
def to_s
"#@first_name #@last_name"
end

# good
def to_s
"#{@first_name} #{@last_name}"
end
end

$global = 0
# bad
puts "$global = #$global"

# good
puts "$global = #{$global}"

Avoid using String#+ when you need to construct large data chunks. Instead, use String#<<. Concatenation mutates the string instance in-place and is always faster than String#+, which creates a bunch of new string objects.

# good and also fast
html = ''
html << '<h1>Page title</h1>'

paragraphs.each do |paragraph|
html << "<p>#{paragraph}</p>"
end

Regular Expressions

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
-- Jamie Zawinski

Don't use regular expressions if you just need plain text search in string: string['text']

For simple constructions you can use regexp directly through string index.

match = string[/regexp/] # get content of matched regexp
first_group = string[/text(grp)/, 1] # get content of captured group
string[/text (grp)/, 1] = 'replace' # string => 'text replace'

Use non-capturing groups when you don't use captured result of parentheses.

/(first|second)/ # bad
/(?:first|second)/ # good

Avoid using $1-9 as it can be hard to track what they contain. Named groups can be used instead.

# bad
/(regexp)/ =~ string
...
process $1

# good
/(?<meaningful_var>regexp)/ =~ string
...
process meaningful_var

Character classes have only a few special characters you should care about: ^, -, \, ], so don't escape . or brackets in [].

Be careful with ^ and $ as they match start/end of line, not string endings. If you want to match the whole string use: \A and \z (not to be confused with \Z which is the equivalent of /\n?\z/).

string = "some injection\nusername"
string[/^username$/] # matches
string[/\Ausername\z/] # don't match

Use x modifier for complex regexps. This makes them more readable and you can add some useful comments. Just be careful as spaces are ignored.

regexp = %r{
start # some text
\s # white space char
(group) # first group
(?:alt1|alt2) # some alternation
end
}x

For complex replacements sub/gsub can be used with block or hash.

Percent Literals

Use %() for single-line strings which require both interpolation and embedded double-quotes. For multi-line strings, prefer heredocs.

# bad (no interpolation needed)
%(<div class="text">Some text</div>)
# should be '<div class="text">Some text</div>'

# bad (no double-quotes)
%(This is #{quality} style)
# should be "This is #{quality} style"

# bad (multiple lines)
%(<div>\n<span class="big">#{exclamation}</span>\n</div>)
# should be a heredoc.

# good (requires interpolation, has quotes, single line)
%(<tr><td class="name">#{name}</td>)

Use %r only for regular expressions matching more than one '/' character.

# bad
%r(\s+)

# still bad
%r(^/(.*)$)
# should be /^\/(.*)$/

# good
%r(^/blog/2011/(.*)$)

Avoid %q, %Q, %x, %s, and %W.

Prefer () as delimiters for all % literals.

Metaprogramming

Avoid needless metaprogramming.

Do not mess around in core classes when writing libraries. (Do not monkey-patch them.)

The block form of class_eval is preferable to the string-interpolated form.
when you use the string-interpolated form, always supply __FILE__ and __LINE__, so that your backtraces make sense:

class_eval 'def use_relative_model_naming?; true; end', __FILE__, __LINE__

define_method is preferable to class_eval{ def ... }

When using class_eval (or other eval) with string interpolation, add a comment block showing its appearance if interpolated (a practice I learned from the Rails code):

# from activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/output_safety.rb
UNSAFE_STRING_METHODS.each do |unsafe_method|
if 'String'.respond_to?(unsafe_method)
class_eval <<-EOT, __FILE__, __LINE__ + 1
def #{unsafe_method}(*args, &block) # def capitalize(*args, &block)
to_str.#{unsafe_method}(*args, &block) # to_str.capitalize(*args, &block)
end # end

def #{unsafe_method}!(*args) # def capitalize!(*args)
@dirty = true # @dirty = true
super # super
end # end
EOT
end
end

avoid using method_missing for metaprogramming. Backtraces become messy; the behavior is not listed in #methods; misspelled method calls might silently work (nukes.launch_state = false). Consider using delegation, proxy, or define_method instead. If you must, use method_missing,
be sure to also define respond_to_missing?
only catch methods with a well-defined prefix, such as find_by_* -- make your code as assertive as possible.
call super at the end of your statement
delegate to assertive, non-magical methods:

# bad
def method_missing?(meth, *args, &block)
if /^find_by_(?<prop>.*)/ =~ meth
# ... lots of code to do a find_by
else
super
end
end

# good
def method_missing?(meth, *args, &block)
if /^find_by_(?<prop>.*)/ =~ meth
find_by(prop, *args, &block)
else
super
end
end

# best of all, though, would to define_method as each findable attribute is declared

Misc

Write ruby -w safe code.
Avoid hashes as optional parameters. Does the method do too much?
Avoid methods longer than 10 LOC (lines of code). Ideally, most methods will be shorter than 5 LOC. Empty lines do not contribute to the relevant LOC.
Avoid parameter lists longer than three or four parameters.
If you really need "global" methods, add them to Kernel and make them private.

Use class instance variables instead of global variables.

#bad
$foo_bar = 1

#good
class Foo
class << self
attr_accessor :bar
end
end

Foo.bar = 1

Avoid alias when alias_method will do.

Use OptionParser for parsing complex command line options and ruby -s for trivial command line options.

Code in a functional way, avoiding mutation when that makes sense.

Do not mutate arguments unless that is the purpose of the method.

Avoid more than three levels of block nesting.

Be consistent. In an ideal world, be consistent with these guidelines.

Use common sense.

Contributing

Nothing written in this guide is set in stone. It's my desire to work together with everyone interested in Ruby coding style, so that we could ultimately create a resource that will be beneficial to the entire Ruby community.

Feel free to open tickets or send pull requests with improvements. Thanks in advance for your help!