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Learning Ruby From the Ground Up

Learning Ruby can be tough. Even if you're familiar with other languages such as C, Java or PHP, Ruby kind of has its own way. By following each of these sections, you'll be able to get a handle on what Ruby has to offer, its intricacies and how you can leverage them in your programs. And, once you sink your teeth in, you'll see that even though Ruby may seem different, it's quite powerful and really not all that hard at all.
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Getting Started

Getting started with any programming language can be daunting. What do you install? Where do you get it? What do you run? What are the common idioms and conventions that Ruby programmers use? Without these articles you'll be fumbling in the dark before discovering these things out by trial and error.

Variables

Before you begin programming, you need to have a grasp of the most basic component of a program: the variable. Variables store information and can be used as containers to pass information from one point in a program to another. This section provides an overview of using variables in Ruby.

Strings

Strings are one of the most basic types in Ruby (or any programming language, for that matter). Whether you're writing system scripts, web applications or games, strings will be used extensively. Ruby's tools for dealing with strings are extensive and expressive, enough to rival even Perl!

Control Structures

In order for a computer program to have any meaningful effect, it must be able to react differently to changing conditions. The basic form of program flow control in Ruby are conditionals (if statements) and loops (both keyword and method loops). And at the heart of all of that are boolean expressions.