A class variable starts with an @@ sign which is immediately followed by upper or lower case letter. You can also put some name characters after the letters which stand to be a pure optional. A class variable can be shared among all the objects of a class. A single copy of a class variable exists for each and every given class.

To write a global variable you start the variable with a $ sign which should be followed by a name character. Ruby defines a number of global variables which also include other punctuation characters such as $_ and $-k.