Value Objects in Ruby - how it works?

Value Object is quite popular design pattern, but it can be messy to implement it well.

This is my implementation of value objects. 

A Value Object is a simple entity in which equality is based on its value, not on the identity of the object.

Value objects from the definition should be immutable which means, you cant change them after creation.

You should not compare value object identity with another one. Instead of that just create a method, 
which compare values included inside those objects.

WHEN TO USE THEM?

Value objects can resolve many problems inside your code:

• they group methods connected with some concrete data type inside one class,
• they help to remove duplication from your code,
• of course, PORO object created as a value object can be tested in easy way.

HOW IT WORKS?

Creating a value object is quite simple:

# frozen_string_literal: true

class Shape
  SHAPES = {
    "square" => "kwadrat",
    "triangle" => "trojkat",
    "circle" => "okrąg"
  }.freeze

  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def polish_name
    SHAPES[@name]
  end

  def ==(other)
    name == other.name
  end

  attr_reader :name
end

As you can see in the example above, value object can look like a simple PORO. 

As i wrote before, you need to create a method which will compare values inside Value Object.

  def ==(other)
    name == other.name
  end

Thanks to this method, we can compare 2 objects:

Shape.new("square") == Shape.new("square")
# => true

Shape.new("circle") == Shape.new("square")
# => false