Want to return a global variable instead of a local variable

I am verifying the existence of "test_results" in the application controller. It is returned as a local variable. I would like to call it once and have it available for the whole session. How do i do that?

"test_results" in application controller:

  def test_results
    (0 .. 4).each do |x| # looks for answers to the first 4 questions
      if @answers[x].nil? || @answers[x] == 0.0
        return false
        break
      end
    end
    return tr开发者_Go百科ue
  end

other controllers:

before_filter :test_results

if test_results
   ...do stuff
else
   ...display "take the test"
end

error message from view:

undefined local variable or method `test_results'

You can try using @

 if @instrument_results

Edit

The result of before filter isn't stored. I don't know what you want to do but you can set a controller level variable inside the test_results function and then referer it as @controller.variable_name. But if your intention is to make a conditional view based on test_results return value, I suggest you to make a redirect to another action in the test_results method and put the success content in the current controller. You can use :only and :except modifier to check which action of the controller will call the :before_filter. Hope this helps.