Provides a way to check whether some class acts like some other class based on the existence of an appropriately-named marker method.

A class that provides the same interface as SomeClass may define a marker method named acts_like_some_class? to signal its compatibility to callers of acts_like?(:some_class).

For example, Active Support extends Date to define an acts_like_date? method, and extends Time to define acts_like_time?. As a result, developers can call x.acts_like?(:time) and x.acts_like?(:date) to test duck-type compatibility, and classes that are able to act like Time can also define an acts_like_time? method to interoperate.

Note that the marker method is only expected to exist. It isn’t called, so its body or return value are irrelevant.

Example: A class that provides the same interface as String¶ ↑

This class may define:

class Stringish
  def acts_like_string?
  end
end

Then client code can query for duck-type-safeness this way:

Stringish.new.acts_like?(:string) 

Source: show | on GitHub

def acts_like?(duck)
  case duck
  when :time
    respond_to? :acts_like_time?
  when :date
    respond_to? :acts_like_date?
  when :string
    respond_to? :acts_like_string?
  else
    respond_to? :"acts_like_#{duck}?"
  end
end

An object is blank if it’s false, empty, or a whitespace string. For example, nil, ”, ‘ ’, [], {}, and false are all blank.

This simplifies

!address || address.empty?

to

address.blank?

@return [true, false]

Source: show | on GitHub

def blank?
  respond_to?(:empty?) ? !!empty? : false
end

Returns a deep copy of object if it’s duplicable. If it’s not duplicable, returns self.

object = Object.new
dup    = object.deep_dup
dup.instance_variable_set(:@a, 1)

object.instance_variable_defined?(:@a) 
dup.instance_variable_defined?(:@a)    

Source: show | on GitHub

def deep_dup
  duplicable? ? dup : self
end

Can you safely dup this object?

False for method objects; true otherwise.

Returns true if this object is included in the argument.

When argument is a Range, cover? is used to properly handle inclusion check within open ranges. Otherwise, argument must be any object which responds to include?. Usage:

characters = ["Konata", "Kagami", "Tsukasa"]
"Konata".in?(characters) 

For non Range arguments, this will throw an ArgumentError if the argument doesn’t respond to include?.

Source: show | on GitHub

def in?(another_object)
  case another_object
  when Range
    another_object.cover?(self)
  else
    another_object.include?(self)
  end
rescue NoMethodError
  raise ArgumentError.new("The parameter passed to #in? must respond to #include?")
end

Returns a hash with string keys that maps instance variable names without “@” to their corresponding values.

class C
  def initialize(x, y)
    @x, @y = x, y
  end
end

C.new(0, 1).instance_values 

Source: show | on GitHub

def instance_values
  instance_variables.to_h do |ivar|
    [ivar[1..-1].freeze, instance_variable_get(ivar)]
  end
end

Returns an array of instance variable names as strings including “@”.

class C
  def initialize(x, y)
    @x, @y = x, y
  end
end

C.new(0, 1).instance_variable_names 

Source: show | on GitHub

def instance_variable_names
  instance_variables.map(&:name)
end

Returns the receiver if it’s present otherwise returns nil. object.presence is equivalent to

object.present? ? object : nil

For example, something like

state   = params[:state]   if params[:state].present?
country = params[:country] if params[:country].present?
region  = state || country || 'US'

becomes

region = params[:state].presence || params[:country].presence || 'US'

@return [Object]

Returns the receiver if it’s included in the argument otherwise returns nil. Argument must be any object which responds to include?. Usage:

params[:bucket_type].presence_in %w( project calendar )

This will throw an ArgumentError if the argument doesn’t respond to include?.

@return [Object]

Source: show | on GitHub

def presence_in(another_object)
  in?(another_object) ? self : nil
end

An object is present if it’s not blank.

@return [true, false]

Source: show | on GitHub

def to_query(key)
  "#{CGI.escape(key.to_param)}=#{CGI.escape(to_param.to_s)}"
end

Invokes the public method whose name goes as first argument just like public_send does, except that if the receiver does not respond to it the call returns nil rather than raising an exception.

This method is defined to be able to write

@person.try(:name)

instead of

@person.name if @person

try calls can be chained:

@person.try(:spouse).try(:name)

instead of

@person.spouse.name if @person && @person.spouse

try will also return nil if the receiver does not respond to the method:

@person.try(:non_existing_method) 

instead of

@person.non_existing_method if @person.respond_to?(:non_existing_method) 

try returns nil when called on nil regardless of whether it responds to the method:

nil.try(:to_i) 

Arguments and blocks are forwarded to the method if invoked:

@posts.try(:each_slice, 2) do |a, b|
  ...
end

The number of arguments in the signature must match. If the object responds to the method the call is attempted and ArgumentError is still raised in case of argument mismatch.

If try is called without arguments it yields the receiver to a given block unless it is nil:

@person.try do |p|
  ...
end

You can also call try with a block without accepting an argument, and the block will be instance_eval’ed instead:

@person.try { upcase.truncate(50) }

Please also note that try is defined on Object. Therefore, it won’t work with instances of classes that do not have Object among their ancestors, like direct subclasses of BasicObject.

Same as try, but raises a NoMethodError exception if the receiver is not nil and does not implement the tried method.

"a".try!(:upcase) 
nil.try!(:upcase) 
123.try!(:upcase) 

Set and restore public attributes around a block.

client.timeout 
client.with(timeout: 1) do |c|
  c.timeout 
end
client.timeout 

The receiver is yielded to the provided block.

This method is a shorthand for the common begin/ensure pattern:

old_value = object.attribute
begin
  object.attribute = new_value
  
ensure
  object.attribute = old_value
end

It can be used on any object as long as both the reader and writer methods are public.

Source: show | on GitHub

def with(**attributes)
  old_values = {}
  begin
    attributes.each do |key, value|
      old_values[key] = public_send(key)
      public_send("#{key}=", value)
    end
    yield self
  ensure
    old_values.each do |key, old_value|
      public_send("#{key}=", old_value)
    end
  end
end

An elegant way to factor duplication out of options passed to a series of method calls. Each method called in the block, with the block variable as the receiver, will have its options merged with the default options Hash or Hash-like object provided. Each method called on the block variable must take an options hash as its final argument.

Without with_options, this code contains duplication:

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :customers, dependent: :destroy
  has_many :products,  dependent: :destroy
  has_many :invoices,  dependent: :destroy
  has_many :expenses,  dependent: :destroy
end

Using with_options, we can remove the duplication:

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options dependent: :destroy do |assoc|
    assoc.has_many :customers
    assoc.has_many :products
    assoc.has_many :invoices
    assoc.has_many :expenses
  end
end

It can also be used with an explicit receiver:

I18n.with_options locale: user.locale, scope: 'newsletter' do |i18n|
  subject i18n.t :subject
  body    i18n.t :body, user_name: user.name
end

When you don’t pass an explicit receiver, it executes the whole block in merging options context:

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options dependent: :destroy do
    has_many :customers
    has_many :products
    has_many :invoices
    has_many :expenses
  end
end

with_options can also be nested since the call is forwarded to its receiver.

NOTE: Each nesting level will merge inherited defaults in addition to their own.

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options if: :persisted?, length: { minimum: 50 } do
    validates :content, if: -> { content.present? }
  end
end

The code is equivalent to:

validates :content, length: { minimum: 50 }, if: -> { content.present? }

Hence the inherited default for if key is ignored.

NOTE: You cannot call class methods implicitly inside of with_options. You can access these methods using the class name instead:

class Phone < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum :phone_number_type, { home: 0, office: 1, mobile: 2 }

  with_options presence: true do
    validates :phone_number_type, inclusion: { in: Phone.phone_number_types.keys }
  end
end

When the block argument is omitted, the decorated Object instance is returned:

module MyStyledHelpers
  def styled
    with_options style: "color: red;"
  end
end

styled.link_to "I'm red", "/"


styled.button_tag "I'm red too!"

Source: show | on GitHub

def with_options(options, &block)
  option_merger = ActiveSupport::OptionMerger.new(self, options)

  if block
    block.arity.zero? ? option_merger.instance_eval(&block) : block.call(option_merger)
  else
    option_merger
  end
end