Use "ensure" for cleanup actions in your Ruby methods

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:43:23 +0000

When developing instance methods in Ruby, one common problem is correctly restoring the object’s state upon method completion.

For example, you need to modify instance variables for only one method call and then return them to their initial state. You could use a simple and obvious solution: save the original value in a temporary variable and then restore it at the end of the method.

However, this will only work until an exception is thrown. Since the variable is not restored at the end of the method, the object’s state will be corrupted. To prevent this, move the variable restoration code to the ensure block, as the code in it is always executed.

Ensure on Artem Yegorov

Use "ensure" for cleanup actions in your Ruby methods