Ruby: how can I copy a variable without pointing to the same object?

Question

In Ruby, how can I copy a variable such that changes to the original don't affect the copy?

For example:

phrase1 = "Hello Jim" phrase2 = phrase1 phrase1.gsub!("Hello","Hi") p phrase2 #outputs "Hi Jim" - I want it to remain "Hello Jim" 

In this example, the two variables point to the same object; I want to create a new object for the second variable but have it contain the same information initially.

Answer 1

As for copying you can do:

phrase2 = phrase1.dup 

or

# Clone: copies singleton methods as well phrase2 = phrase1.clone 

You can do this as well to avoid copying at all:

phrase2 = phrase1.gsub("Hello","Hi")