Dynamically creating/recalling/linking nameless objects - ruby

Question

New to Ruby-land via The Odin Project. I'm writing an algorithm to generate binary search trees from a sorted array of random numbers.
class Node
attr_accessor :value, :child_left, :child_right, :parent
def initialize (value, child_left = nil, child_right = nil, parent = nil)
#value = value
#child_left = child_left
#child_right = child_right
#parent = parent
#Checker to verify object and link creation
#puts "value: #{value}, self: #{self}, parent: #{parent}, child_left: #{child_left}, child_right: #{child_right}"
end
end
def build_tree(arry, parent = nil)
if arry.length > 2
child_left = build_tree(arry[0...arry.length/2], arry[arry.length/2])
child_right = build_tree(arry[(arry.length/2)+1..-1], arry[arry.length/2])
Node.new(arry[arry.length/2], child_left, child_right, parent)
#Can't link parent object until parent is created, but can't create child object until parent can be linked
elsif arry.length == 2
child_left = build_tree(arry[0...1], arry[1])
Node.new(arry[1], child_left, nil, parent)
elsif arry.length == 1
Node.new(arry[0], nil, nil, parent)
end
end
This results in properly generated node objects linked to their child objects, but only with the same fixnum value as the parent objects' value and not the actual parent object. It seems like a chicken/egg scenario. Either I'm committing some Object/Class creation sin here, or I simply lack the vocabulary to successfully search for a solution to my problem. Please advise.
EDIT: Maybe just a hint on some term(s) to search to point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

First at all, you have an issue in the constructor:
def initialize (value, childL = nil, childR = nil, parent = nil)
#value = :value
#childL = :childL
#childR = :childR
#parent = :parent
end
:something in Ruby is a Symbol, the build-in object, which is quite similar to String, but not modifiable. So, whatever you pass to Node.new, your variables will be set to :value, :childL and so on.
You probably wanted to set your class variables like this:
def initialize (value, childL = nil, childR = nil, parent = nil)
#value = value
#childL = childL
#childR = childR
#parent = parent
end
Learn more on String and Symbols in Ruby here.