Metaprogramming in Ruby

1.2 Calling a method

When you call a method, Ruby does two things:

1.2.1 Method Lookup

When you call a method, Ruby looks into the object's class and finds the method there. We need to know about two new concepts: the receiver and the ancestors chain. The receiver is simply the object that you call a method on.

For example, if you write an_object.display(), then an_object is the receiver. To understand the concept of an ancestors chain, just look at any Ruby class. Then imagine moving from the class into its superclass, then into the superclass's superclass, and so on until you reach Object (the default superclass) and then, finally, BasicObject (the root of the Ruby class hierarchy). The path of classes you just traversed is called the "ancestors chain" of the class (the ancestors chain also includes modules).

Therefore, to find a method, Ruby goes in the receiver's class, and from there it climbs the ancestors chain until it finds the method. This behavior is also called the "one step to the right, then up" rule: Go one step to the right into the receiver's class, and then up the ancestors chain, until you find the method. When you include a module in a class (or even in another module), Ruby creates an anonymous class that wraps the module, and inserts the anonymous class in the chain, just above the including class itself.

1.2.2 self

Thus, whenever we do a method call with an explicit receiver, obj as shown below, then Ruby goes through the following three steps:

obj.do_method(param)

1.3 Useful methods in Ruby Metaprogramming

1.3.1 Introspection or Reflection

In Ruby it's possible to read information about a class or object at runtime. We could use some of the methods like class(), instance_methods(), instance_variables() to do that. For example:

# The code in the following class definition is executed immediately
class Rubyist
  # the code in the following method definition is executed later,
  # when you eventually call the method
  def what_does_he_do
    @person = 'A Rubyist'
    'Ruby programming'
  end
end
an_object = Rubyist.new
puts an_object.class # => Rubyist
puts an_object.class.instance_methods(false) # => what_does_he_do
an_object.what_does_he_do
puts an_object.instance_variables # => @person

The respond_to? method is another example of introspection or reflection. You can determine in advance (before you ask the object to do something) whether the object knows how to handle the message you want to send it, by using the respond_to? method. This method exists for all objects; you can ask any object whether it responds to any message.

obj = Object.new
if obj.respond_to?(:program)
  obj.program
else
  puts "Sorry, the object doesn't understand the 'program' message."
end

1.3.2 send Important

send( ) is an instance method of the Object class. The first argument to send( ) is the message that you're sending to the object - that is, the name of a method. You can use a string or a symbol, but symbols are preferred. Any remaining arguments are simply passed on to the method.

class Rubyist
  def welcome(*args)
    "Welcome " + args.join(' ')
  end
end
obj = Rubyist.new
puts(obj.send(:welcome, "famous", "Rubyists"))   # => Welcome famous Rubyists

With send( ), the name of the method that you want to call becomes just a regular argument. You can wait literally until the very last moment to decide which method to call, while the code is running.

class Rubyist
end

rubyist = Rubyist.new
if rubyist.respond_to?(:also_railist)
  puts rubyist.send(:also_railist)
else
  puts "No such information available"
end

In the code above, if the rubyist object knows what to do with :also_railist, you hand the rubyist the message and let it do its thing.

You can call any method with send( ), including private methods.

class Rubyist
  private
  def say_hello(name)
    "#{name} rocks!!"
  end
end
obj = Rubyist.new
puts obj.send( :say_hello, 'Matz')

Note:

  1. Unlike send(), public_send() calls public methods only.
  2. Similar to send(), we also have an instance method __send()__ of the BasicObject class.

1.3.3 define_method Important

The Module#define_method( ) is a private instance method of the class Module. The define_method is only defined on classes and modules. You can dynamically define an instance method in the receiver with define_method( ). You just need to provide a method name and a block, which becomes the method body:

class Rubyist
  define_method :hello do |my_arg|
    my_arg
  end
end
obj = Rubyist.new
puts(obj.hello('Matz')) # => Matz

1.3.4 method_missing

When Ruby does a method look-up and can't find a particular method, it calls a method named method_missing( ) on the original receiver. The method_missing( ) method is passed the symbol of the non-existent method, an array of the arguments that were passed in the original call and any block passed to the original method. Ruby knows that method_missing( ) is there, because it's a private instance method of BasicObject that every object inherits. The BasicObject#method_missing( ) responds by raising a NoMethodError. Overriding method_missing( ) allows you to call methods that don't really exist.

class Rubyist
  def method_missing(m, *args, &block)
    str = "Called #{m} with #{args.inspect}"
    if block_given?
      puts str + " and also a block: #{block}"
    else
      puts str
    end
  end
end

# => Called anything with []
Rubyist.new.anything
# => Called anything with [3, 4] and also a block: #<Proc:0xa63878@tmp.rb:12>
Rubyist.new.anything(3, 4) { something }

1.3.5 remove_method and undef_method

To remove existing methods, you can use the remove_method within the scope of a given class. If a method with the same name is defined for an ancestor of that class, the ancestor class method is not removed. The undef_method, by contrast, prevents the specified class from responding to a method call even if a method with the same name is defined in one of its ancestors.

class Rubyist
  def method_missing(m, *args, &block)
    puts "Method Missing: Called #{m} with #{args.inspect} and #{block}"
  end

  def hello
    puts "Hello from class Rubyist"
  end
end

class IndianRubyist < Rubyist
  def hello
    puts "Hello from class IndianRubyist"
  end
end

obj = IndianRubyist.new
obj.hello # => Hello from class IndianRubyist

class IndianRubyist
  remove_method :hello  # removed from IndianRubyist, but still in Rubyist
end
obj.hello # => Hello from class Rubyist

class IndianRubyist
  undef_method :hello   # prevent any calls to 'hello'
end
obj.hello # => Method Missing: Called hello with [] and

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Note: The material in these study notes is drawn primarily from the references mentioned on the last page. Our acknowledgment and thanks to all of them.
This page was last updated on 1st Sept. 2011.