title: What is the difference between local, instance, and class variables?
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3802540/difference-between-class-variables-and-class-instance-variables">Difference between class variables and class instance variables?</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>While reading a Ruby book, I seem to have missed the variables chapter. Now I can't seem to understand the following things:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>What is an instance variable?</li>
  <li>What is a class instance variable?</li>
  <li>What is the difference between a <code>variable</code>, <code>@instance_var</code> and <code>@class_instance_var</code>?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I tried to read some posts in different blogs, but I still do not understand.  Any help would be appreciated.</p>