Should I destroy File object after File.read and File.open in Ruby?

Question

Suppose two kinds of ruby File operations.

Firstly,

file = File.open("xxx")
file.close

Secondly,

file = File.read("xxx")
file.close

It's known to all that we should close file after we finish using it. But, in the second block of code, Ruby interpreter throw an error message shown below:

in `<main>': undefined method `close' for #<String:0x000000022a3a08> (NoMethodError)

I need not to use file.close in the second case? I wonder why?

Answer 1

It's because File.read method returns string with content of the file, not the File object. And yes, you don't need to use close explicitly if you use File.read method, because ruby does it for you automatically.