how do I create a class that stores instances? - ruby

Question

I want something like the following but would like it to be reusable for different classes.
How do I refactor this code, so with minimal effort it can be included in a class and that class will automatically be collecting instances whenever new is called?
I've tried all sorts of things like overriding new or initialize but just can't get the magic to happen.
class Person
##people_instances = []
def initialize
##people_instances << self
end
def self.instances
##people_instances
end
end
People.new
People.new
Poople.instances
=> [#<Person:0x000001071a7e28>, #<Person:0x000001071a3828>]
After some feedback below, I don't think the answer is to put the instances in a class variable as it will stay in memory forever. Rails cache is also not so appropriate as I don't need the instances to persist.
The following code uses class instance variables instead of class variables.
http://www.dzone.com/snippets/class-variables-vs-class
class Employee
class << self; attr_accessor :instances; end
def store
self.class.instances ||= []
self.class.instances << self
end
def initialize name
#name = name
end
end
class Overhead < Employee; end
class Programmer < Employee; end
Overhead.new('Martin').store
Overhead.new('Roy').store
Programmer.new('Erik').store
puts Overhead.instances.size # => 2
puts Programmer.instances.size # => 1
Will these instance variables be unique to every rails request or will they persist?

Answer 1

UPDATED ANSWER
If you want to keep it available during the request alone, none of the previous answers can do it. The solution for keeping it available only during the request-response cycle is to use a thread-local that is assigned in a controller method, example:
class YourController < ApplicationController
around_filter :cache_objects
protected
def cache_objects
Thread.current[:my_objects] = ['my-object', 'my-other-object']
yield
ensure
Thread.current[:my_objects]
end
end
Then, at the code that needs it, you just do Thread.current[:my_objects] and do whatever you would like to do with them. You need to use an around_filter because your web framework or server structure could try to reuse threads and the only real solution is to clean them up once the request is done to avoid memory leaks.
OLD ANSWER
Not sure what you're trying to do, but you can easily pick every single instance of a class using ObjectSpace:
ObjectSpace.each_object(String) { |s| puts(s) }
If what you need is as a database cache just use the Rails cache, load these objects once and then keep them in the cache. When using the Rails cache all you need to do is send your objects to the cache:
Rails.cache.write( "my_cached_objects", [ 'first-object', 'second-object' ] )
And then get them somewhere else:
Rails.cache.fetch("my_cached_objects") do
# generate your objects here if there was a cache miss
[ 'first-object', 'second-object' ]
end
As you can see, you don't even have to call cache.write, you can just use fetch and whenever there is a cache miss the block given will be called and your objects will be created.
You can read more about rails caching here and you can see all supported methods of the ActiveSupport::Cache::Store here.
Another method without using ObjectSpace but still with an ugly solution, now using alias_method:
module Counter
def self.included( base )
base.extend(ClassMethods)
base.class_eval do
alias_method :initialize_without_counter, :initialize
alias_method :initialize, :initialize_with_counter
end
end
def count_class_variable_name
:"###{self.class.name.downcase}_instances"
end
def initialize_with_counter( *args )
unless self.class.class_variable_defined?(count_class_variable_name)
self.class.class_variable_set(count_class_variable_name, [])
end
self.class.class_variable_get(count_class_variable_name) << self
initialize_without_counter(*args)
end
module ClassMethods
def all_instances
class_variable_get(:"###{name.downcase}_instances")
end
end
end
class Person
def initialize
puts 'new person'
end
include Counter
end
p1 = Person.new
p2 = Person.new
p3 = Person.new
puts Person.all_instances.size

Answer 2

lib/keeper.rb
def initialize
instance_eval "###{self.class.to_s.downcase}_instances ||= []"
instance_eval "###{self.class.to_s.downcase}_instances << self"
end
def self.instances
return class_eval "###{self.to_s.downcase}_instances"
end
person.rb
class Person
eval File.open('./lib/keeper.rb','rb').read
end
Then this works:
Person.new
Person.new
Person.instances