I was playing with Rails Console. By chance, I accidentally convert an object into a string. Below are my codes.

Rails Console

user = User.find(1)
user.to_s  # returns <User:0x00000103ada530>

My question is, What is <User:0x00000103ada530> ? Is it like an ID of User? Is I enter <User:0x00000103ada530> will I get back User.find(1)

Thanks

I could be wrong, but

0x00000103ada530

is address in memory
where you call User.new which is allocates memory space and the space has address: 0x00000103ada530

For example 2 instances of one class are not stores in the same place

class Test
end

t1 = Test.allocate # the same as Test.new, but just allocates a memory space for t1
t2 = Test.allocate
p t1 === t2  # false
p t1.inspect # "#<Test:0x007f17555ff398>"
p t2.inspect # "#<Test:0x007f17555ff370>"

If you need #to_s method for User you can set method

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  . . .
  def to_s
   "#{first_name} #{last_name}"
  end
  . . .
end

User.first.to_s # => John Doe

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