How to make class methods dynamically using instance variable value - ruby

Question

Let see the code first that will help what I want to achieve:
class PostalInfo
attr_reader :name, :code
def initialize (id, name, code)
#id = id
#name = name
#code = code
end
def method_missing(method, *args, &blk)
if method.to_s == "#{name}"
return code
else
super
end
end
end
pi1 = PostalInfo.new(1, 'united_states', 'US')
pi2 = PostalInfo.new(2, 'united_kingdom', 'UK')
So when I run below code, it gives output as:
pi1.united_states => 'US'
pi2.united_kingdom => 'UK'
its fine upto here, but I also want to do something like
PostalInfo.united_states => 'US'
PostalInfo.united_kingdom => 'UK'
how to do that, thanks in advance

Answer 1

This sets up a class attribute to hold the data, and whenever an instance is initialized, it adds to that data structure, and uses a similar class-level method_missing.
class PostalInfo
attr_reader :name, :code
##postal_info = {}
def self.method_missing(method, *args, &blk)
name = method.to_s
if ##postal_info[name]
##postal_info[name]
else
super
end
end
def initialize (id, name, code)
#id = id
#name = name
#code = code
##postal_info[#name] = #code
end
def method_missing(method, *args, &blk)
if method.to_s == "#{name}"
return code
else
super
end
end
end
pi1 = PostalInfo.new(1, 'united_states', 'US')
pi2 = PostalInfo.new(2, 'united_kingdom', 'UK')
PostalInfo.united_states #=> 'US'
PostalInfo.united_kingdom #=> 'UK'
I will say, this seems like a weird design, and I'd normally recommend avoiding using mutable state with class methods, and method_missing wherever possible.

Answer 2

You can write something like this:
class PostalInfo
POSTAL_HASH = {
united_states: 'US',
united_kingdom: 'UK',
}.freeze
def self.method_missing(method, *args, &blk)
POSTAL_HASH[method] || super
end
end
Skipping missing method might result in better performance:
class PostalInfo
POSTAL_HASH = {
united_states: 'US',
united_kingdom: 'UK',
}.freeze
class << self
POSTAL_HASH.each do |name, code|
define_method(name) do
code
end
end
end
end

Answer 3

With one exception, you need to mimic the code in the first part of your answer in the class' singleton class. The difference concerns the initialisation of the instance variables. Rather than using PostalInfo::new and PostalInfo#initialize, you need to create a class method for doing that (which I've called add_country_data). Note that as the class' instance variable id is not used I've not included it in the code.
class PostalInfo
class << self
attr_reader :country_data
def add_country_data(name, code)
(#country_data ||= {})[name] = code
end
def add_country_data(name, code)
#country_data[name] = code
end
def method_missing(method, *args, &blk)
return country_data[method.to_s] if country_data.key?(method.to_s)
super
end
end
end
PostalInfo.add_country_data('united_states', 'US')
PostalInfo.add_country_data('united_kingdom', 'UK')
PostalInfo.united_states
#=> "US"
PostalInfo.united_kingdom
#=> "UK"
PostalInfo.france
#=> NoMethodError (undefined method `france' for PostalInfo:Class)
Though this meets your requirement, I would be inclined to construct the class in a more conventional way:
class PostalInfo
attr_reader :name, :code
#instances = []
def initialize(name, code)
#name = name
#code = code
self.class.instances << self
end
singleton_class.public_send(:attr_reader, :instances)
end
us = PostalInfo.new('united_states', 'US')
uk = PostalInfo.new('united_kingdom', 'UK')
us.code
#=> "US"
uk.code
#=> "UK"
PostalInfo.instances
#=> [#<PostalInfo:0x00005c1f24c5ccf0 #name="united_states", #code="US">,
# #<PostalInfo:0x00005c1f24c71858 #name="united_kingdom", #code="UK">]