class BasicObject
BasicObject
is the parent class of all classes in Ruby. It’s an explicit blank class.
BasicObject
can be used for creating object hierarchies independent of Ruby’s object hierarchy, proxy objects like the Delegator class, or other uses where namespace pollution from Ruby’s methods and classes must be avoided.
To avoid polluting BasicObject
for other users an appropriately named subclass of BasicObject
should be created instead of directly modifying BasicObject:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject end
BasicObject
does not include Kernel
(for methods like puts
) and BasicObject
is outside of the namespace of the standard library so common classes will not be found without using a full class path.
A variety of strategies can be used to provide useful portions of the standard library to subclasses of BasicObject
. A subclass could include Kernel
to obtain puts
, exit
, etc. A custom Kernel-like module could be created and included or delegation can be used via method_missing
:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject DELEGATE = [:puts, :p] def method_missing(name, *args, &block) return super unless DELEGATE.include? name ::Kernel.send(name, *args, &block) end def respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false) DELEGATE.include?(name) end end
Access to classes and modules from the Ruby standard library can be obtained in a BasicObject
subclass by referencing the desired constant from the root like ::File
or ::Enumerator
. Like method_missing
, const_missing can be used to delegate constant lookup to Object
:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject def self.const_missing(name) ::Object.const_get(name) end end
What’s Here¶ ↑
These are the methods defined for BasicObject:
-
::new
: Returns a new BasicObject instance. -
#!: Returns the boolean negation of
self
:true
orfalse
. -
#!=: Returns whether
self
and the given object are not equal. -
==
: Returns whetherself
and the given object are equivalent. -
#__id__: Returns the integer object identifier for
self
. -
#__send__: Calls the method identified by the given symbol.
-
equal?
: Returns whetherself
and the given object are the same object. -
instance_eval
: Evaluates the given string or block in the context ofself
. -
instance_exec
: Executes the given block in the context ofself
, passing the given arguments.
Public Class Methods
Returns a new BasicObject
.
#define rb_obj_initialize rb_obj_dummy0
Public Instance Methods
Boolean negate.
VALUE rb_obj_not(VALUE obj) { return RBOOL(!RTEST(obj)); }
Returns true if two objects are not-equal, otherwise false.
VALUE rb_obj_not_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2) { VALUE result = rb_funcall(obj1, id_eq, 1, obj2); return rb_obj_not(result); }
Equality — At the Object
level, ==
returns true
only if obj
and other
are the same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to provide class-specific meaning.
Unlike ==
, the equal?
method should never be overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b)
if and only if a
is the same object as b
):
obj = "a" other = obj.dup obj == other #=> true obj.equal? other #=> false obj.equal? obj #=> true
The eql? method returns true
if obj
and other
refer to the same hash key. This is used by Hash
to test members for equality. For any pair of objects where eql? returns true
, the hash value of both objects must be equal. So any subclass that overrides eql? should also override hash appropriately.
For objects of class Object
, eql? is synonymous with ==
. Subclasses normally continue this tradition by aliasing eql? to their overridden ==
method, but there are exceptions. Numeric
types, for example, perform type conversion across ==
, but not across eql?, so:
1 == 1.0 #=> true 1.eql? 1.0 #=> false
VALUE rb_obj_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2) { return RBOOL(obj1 == obj2); }
Returns an integer identifier for obj
.
The same number will be returned on all calls to object_id
for a given object, and no two active objects will share an id.
Note: that some objects of builtin classes are reused for optimization. This is the case for immediate values and frozen string literals.
BasicObject
implements +__id__+, Kernel
implements object_id
.
Immediate values are not passed by reference but are passed by value: nil
, true
, false
, Fixnums, Symbols, and some Floats.
Object.new.object_id == Object.new.object_id # => false (21 * 2).object_id == (21 * 2).object_id # => true "hello".object_id == "hello".object_id # => false "hi".freeze.object_id == "hi".freeze.object_id # => true
VALUE rb_obj_id(VALUE obj) { /* * 32-bit VALUE space * MSB ------------------------ LSB * false 00000000000000000000000000000000 * true 00000000000000000000000000000010 * nil 00000000000000000000000000000100 * undef 00000000000000000000000000000110 * symbol ssssssssssssssssssssssss00001110 * object oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo00 = 0 (mod sizeof(RVALUE)) * fixnum fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1 * * object_id space * LSB * false 00000000000000000000000000000000 * true 00000000000000000000000000000010 * nil 00000000000000000000000000000100 * undef 00000000000000000000000000000110 * symbol 000SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS0 S...S % A = 4 (S...S = s...s * A + 4) * object oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0 o...o % A = 0 * fixnum fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1 bignum if required * * where A = sizeof(RVALUE)/4 * * sizeof(RVALUE) is * 20 if 32-bit, double is 4-byte aligned * 24 if 32-bit, double is 8-byte aligned * 40 if 64-bit */ return rb_find_object_id(obj, cached_object_id); }
Invokes the method identified by symbol, passing it any arguments specified. When the method is identified by a string, the string is converted to a symbol.
BasicObject
implements +__send__+, Kernel
implements send
. __send__
is safer than send
when obj has the same method name like Socket
. See also public_send
.
class Klass def hello(*args) "Hello " + args.join(' ') end end k = Klass.new k.send :hello, "gentle", "readers" #=> "Hello gentle readers"
VALUE rb_f_send(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE recv) { return send_internal_kw(argc, argv, recv, CALL_FCALL); }
Equality — At the Object
level, ==
returns true
only if obj
and other
are the same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to provide class-specific meaning.
Unlike ==
, the equal?
method should never be overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b)
if and only if a
is the same object as b
):
obj = "a" other = obj.dup obj == other #=> true obj.equal? other #=> false obj.equal? obj #=> true
The eql? method returns true
if obj
and other
refer to the same hash key. This is used by Hash
to test members for equality. For any pair of objects where eql? returns true
, the hash value of both objects must be equal. So any subclass that overrides eql? should also override hash appropriately.
For objects of class Object
, eql? is synonymous with ==
. Subclasses normally continue this tradition by aliasing eql? to their overridden ==
method, but there are exceptions. Numeric
types, for example, perform type conversion across ==
, but not across eql?, so:
1 == 1.0 #=> true 1.eql? 1.0 #=> false
Evaluates a string containing Ruby source code, or the given block, within the context of the receiver (obj). In order to set the context, the variable self
is set to obj while the code is executing, giving the code access to obj’s instance variables and private methods.
When instance_eval
is given a block, obj is also passed in as the block’s only argument.
When instance_eval
is given a String
, the optional second and third parameters supply a filename and starting line number that are used when reporting compilation errors.
class KlassWithSecret def initialize @secret = 99 end private def the_secret "Ssssh! The secret is #{@secret}." end end k = KlassWithSecret.new k.instance_eval { @secret } #=> 99 k.instance_eval { the_secret } #=> "Ssssh! The secret is 99." k.instance_eval {|obj| obj == self } #=> true
static VALUE rb_obj_instance_eval_internal(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE self) { return specific_eval(argc, argv, self, TRUE, RB_PASS_CALLED_KEYWORDS); }
Executes the given block within the context of the receiver (obj). In order to set the context, the variable self
is set to obj while the code is executing, giving the code access to obj’s instance variables. Arguments are passed as block parameters.
class KlassWithSecret def initialize @secret = 99 end end k = KlassWithSecret.new k.instance_exec(5) {|x| @secret+x } #=> 104
static VALUE rb_obj_instance_exec_internal(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE self) { return yield_under(self, TRUE, argc, argv, RB_PASS_CALLED_KEYWORDS); }
Private Instance Methods
Invoked by Ruby when obj is sent a message it cannot handle. symbol is the symbol for the method called, and args are any arguments that were passed to it. By default, the interpreter raises an error when this method is called. However, it is possible to override the method to provide more dynamic behavior. If it is decided that a particular method should not be handled, then super should be called, so that ancestors can pick up the missing method. The example below creates a class Roman
, which responds to methods with names consisting of roman numerals, returning the corresponding integer values.
class Roman def roman_to_int(str) # ... end def method_missing(symbol, *args) str = symbol.id2name begin roman_to_int(str) rescue super(symbol, *args) end end end r = Roman.new r.iv #=> 4 r.xxiii #=> 23 r.mm #=> 2000 r.foo #=> NoMethodError
static VALUE rb_method_missing(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE obj) { rb_execution_context_t *ec = GET_EC(); raise_method_missing(ec, argc, argv, obj, ec->method_missing_reason); UNREACHABLE_RETURN(Qnil); }
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is added to the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_added(id) puts "Adding #{id.id2name}" end def self.one() end def two() end def Chatty.three() end end
produces:
Adding singleton_method_added Adding one Adding three
#define rb_obj_singleton_method_added rb_obj_dummy1
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is removed from the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_removed(id) puts "Removing #{id.id2name}" end def self.one() end def two() end def Chatty.three() end class << self remove_method :three remove_method :one end end
produces:
Removing three Removing one
#define rb_obj_singleton_method_removed rb_obj_dummy1
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is undefined in the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_undefined(id) puts "Undefining #{id.id2name}" end def Chatty.one() end class << self undef_method(:one) end end
produces:
Undefining one
#define rb_obj_singleton_method_undefined rb_obj_dummy1