Given a class with a couple of instance variables and some methods. Some instance variables are set accessible via attr_reader and attr_accessor. Thus the others are private.
Some of the private instance variables get set within one of the instance methods and read/utilized within another method.
For testing I'm using RSpec. As I'm still new to Ruby and want to get all things right, I defined my tests being rather fine-grained. Thus I've got one describe block for each instance method, which themselves are partitioned into a subset of contexts and its. General environmental preconditions are defined with before.
However, when testing one of the methods, which is utilizing but not setting one of the private variables, I need to call the other method, which is setting this variable. This seems rather overweight and not modular for me.
Is there a way of forcing a private instance variable to a certain value. Similar to "ripping out" the value of a private instance variable with Object::instance_eval(:var).
As you answered in your question the easiest way to set instance variable is with instance_eval method:
obj.instance_eval('#a = 1')
Another way is to use instance_variable_set:
obj.instance_variable_set(:#a, 1)
But I would not recommend to do this in your specs. Specs are all about testing behavior of an object and testing behaviour by breaking class encapsulation with instance_eval will make your tests more fragile and implementation dependent.
Alternative approach to object state isolation is to stub accessor methods:
class UnderTest
attr_accessor :a
def test_this
do_something if a == 1
end
end
#in your test
under_test = UnderTest.new
under_test.stub(:a).and_return(1)
Use instance_variable_set:
class SomeClass
attr_reader :hello
def initialize
#hello = 5
end
# ...
end
a = SomeClass.new
a.hello # => 5
a.instance_variable_set("#hello", 7)
a.hello # => 7
I just solved it by creating a child and adding an accessor:
class HasSecrets
#muahaha
end
class TestMe < HasSecrets
attr_accessor(:muahaha)
end
def test_stuff
pwned = TestMe.new()
pwned.muahaha = 'calc.exe'
end
Related
I have been taught to declare my instance variables with def initialize. I have been under the impression that I could declare instance variables only within my initialize methods.
Nevertheless, I declared an instance variable #foo outside my initialize method, and made it work as I intended:
class FooBar
def initialize(bar)
#bar = bar
end
def foo_as_instance_var
#foo = #bar.split(' ')
#foo
end
end
x = "something wicked this way comes"
y = FooBar.new(x)
puts y.foo_as_instance_var
Why am I able to declare an instance variable outside of initialize method? Since I can declare instance variables in any method, is there a best practices rule I should follow, regarding where to declare instance variables (i.e., declare them within initialize) or does it not matter?
I have been taught to declare my instance variables with def initialize
Since initialize is the first instance method call in an object's life cycle, you typically declare your instance variables right there in order to ensure properly initialized variables. It's also the first place I'd expect instance variables to be defined when reading code.
I have been under the impression that I could declare instance variables only within my initialize methods.
There's no such restriction. You can declare instance variable anywhere within your instance.
A common use is memoization:
class FooBar
def foo
#foo ||= expensive_operation
end
end
On the first call, this would evaluate expensive_operation and assign the result to #foo. On subsequent calls, #foo is returned.
Another popular example is Rails which uses instance variables to pass data from the controller to its view:
class FooController < ApplicationController
def index
#foos = Foo.all
end
end
is there a best practices rule I should follow, regarding where to declare instance variables
It depends on their purpose (see above examples). As a general rule, declare them in a way that avoids undefined variables (nil errors) and structure your code so it is easy to read / follow.
Just to add to Stefan's excellent answer
I have been taught to declare my instance variables with def initialize
A common mistake that ruby newbies make is something like this:
class Person
#name = "John"
def introduce
puts "Hi, my name is #{#name}"
end
end
And then they wonder why their names are not printed. To make this work, one can set the variable #name in the initializer, just as the instruction says.
Lets start with the biggest misnomer - in Ruby there is no separate step of declaring variables - Variables are declared as you set them.
What the difference? Look at Java for example:
public class Bicycle {
private int cadence;
private int gear;
private int speed;
public Bicycle(int startCadence, int startSpeed, int startGear) {
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;
}
}
We have to declare all the instance variables before we set them in the initializer (Bicycle). The same code in Ruby reads:
class Bicycle
def initialize(cadence, speed, gear)
#cadence = cadence
#speed = speed
#gear = gear
end
end
There is no declaration - only assignment. Ruby will even let you access instance variables which have not been set without error.
irb(main):003:0> #not_set
=> nil
You can't do that (generally) in languages where variables must be defined*.
I have been taught to declare my instance variables with def
initialize. I have been under the impression that I could declare
instance variables only within my initialize methods.
Nonsense. You can assign instance variables anywhere. Its commonly done in everything from setters and mutators (methods that alter an object) to factory methods (class methods that return an instance) or anywhere that you are altering the state of an object.
class Book
def initialize(title, author)
#title = title
self.author = author # calls the setter.
end
# A factory method
def create_from_csv(filename)
# ...
end
# A very contrived setter
def author=(author)
#author = "#{author.forename.upcase}. #{author.surname}"
end
# a mutator
def out_of_print!
#out_of_print = true
#last_printed = Date.today
end
end
However the initialize method is where you should handle initializing your objects (duuh) and is thus the obvious place to set initial values.
I'm near the finish of the Ruby track in Code Academy, and I'm curious about a peculiar thing: I was under the impression that a class is a repository of constants, methods, etc... and that in order to access most of them, you would first need to create an instance of that class or in some cases the methods of themselves can be invoked (as in they are all technically part of the global object). And then I saw something like this:
#Worked
Time.now
I understood as this as the method [now] of instance of class [Time] being invoked. I then tried to invoke the method on its own:
#Failed
now
and that failed, and I assumed that while a method can be created in the general scope [as part of the global object], if it relies on initialized variables of "parent" class, it cannot be called on its own, because it would not know which object to search for those initialized variables. Following that I created a test class:
class Clock
def initialize
#hours = 1
#minutes = 30
end
def showTime
puts "The time is: #{#hours}:#{#minutes}"
end
end
#this worked
watch = Clock.new
watch.showTime
#this failed
showTime
I then just created a basic method (assuming it's in the global level)
def mymethod
puts "The mighty METHOD!"
end
#Works
mymethod
and calling this method the way I did, without referencing the global object worked. So... the questions I have are as follows:
How can [Time.now] be called in this fashion? Shouldn't there be an instance of Time first created?
Why can't I call the method [now] on its own? Am I right that it relies on resources that it cannot find when called this way?
Why could I not call the method showTime on its own? But if I define any method on the "global" level I can access it without referencing the global object
First of all, your intuition is correct.
Every methods must be an instance method of some receiver.
Global methods are defined as private instance methods on Object class and hence seem to be globally available. Why? From any context Object is always in the class hierarchy of self and hence private methods on Object are always callable without receiver.
def fuuuuuuuuuuun
end
Object.private_methods.include?(:fuuuuuuuuuuun)
# => true
Class methods are defined as instance methods on the "singleton class" of their class instance. Every object in Ruby has two classes, a "singleton class" with instance methods just for that one single object and a "normal class" with method for all objects of that class. Classes are no different, they are objects of the Class class and may have singleton methods.
class A
class << self # the singleton class
def example
end
end
end
A.singleton_class.instance_methods.include?(:example)
# => true
Alternative ways of defining class methods are
class A
def self.example
end
end
# or
def A.example
end
Fun fact, you can define singleton methods on any object (not just on class objects) using the same syntax def (receiver).(method name) as follows
str = "hello"
def str.square_size
size * size
end
str.square_size
# => 25
"any other string".square_size
# => raises NoMethodError
Some programming language history — Singleton classes are taken from the Smalltalk language where they are called "metaclasses". Basically all object-oriented features in Ruby (as well as the functional-style enumerators on Enumerable) are taken from the Smalltalk language. Smalltalk was an early class-based object-oriented language created in the 70ies. It was also the language that invented graphical user interfaces like overlapping windows and menus et cetera. If you love Ruby maybe also take a look at Smalltalk, you might fall in love yet again.
This is known as a class method. If CodeAcademy didn't cover it, that's a shame. Here's some examples:
# basic way
class Foo
def self.bar; :ok; end
end
Foo.bar # => :ok
# alternate syntax
class Foo
class << self
def bar; :ok; end
end
end
# alternate syntax, if Foo class already exists
def Foo.bar; :ok; end
# alternate approach if Foo class already exists
Foo.class_exec do
def bar; :ok; end
end
# to define a class method on an anonymous 'class' for a single instance
# you won't need to use this often
Foo.new.singleton_class.class_exec do
def bar; :ok; end
end
# to define a class method on an instance's actual class
Foo.new.class.class_exec do
def bar; :ok; end
end
Another way to get class methods is to extend a module.
module FooMethods
def bar; :ok; end
end
module Foo
extend FooMethods
end
Foo.bar # => :ok
Note that with Modules, the methods are always defined as instance methods. This way they can be either extended into class scope or included into instance scope. Modules can also have class methods, using the exact same syntax / examples as shown above with classes. However there's not such as easy to load a module's class methods via include or extend.
How can [Time.now] be called in this fashion? Shouldn't there be an
instance of Time first created?
The Time.now method is a class method, not an instance method and therefore can be called directly on the Time class rather than an instance of it Time.new
Class methods are defined on the class themselves using the self keyword:
class Time
def self.now
# code
end
end
Time.now # works
Why can't I call the method [now] on its own? Am I right that it
relies on resources that it cannot find when called this way?
When you call a method "on its own" you're actually implicitly calling it on self:
self.now
The above is the same as just doing:
now
Why could I not call the method showTime on its own? But if I define
any method on the "global" level I can access it without referencing
the global object
You defined the showTime method on a specific class so you have to send that method to that class. When you define a method in the "global" scope you're implicitly defining it on self and the subsequent call to mymethod is actually self.mymethod so it will work.
Time.now is a class method.
To define a class method, you need to define the method with self. : def self.method_name
class Clock
#hours = 1
#minutes = 30
def self.showTime
puts "The time is: #{#hours}:#{#minutes}"
end
end
Clock.showTime
#=> The time is: 1:30
If you want to call now on its own, you can do so inside Time class :
class Time
puts now
#=> 2017-01-19 22:17:29 +0100
end
I wan't to set a class variable of a class from the outside(via attr_accessor), and then access it from inside one of its objects. I'm using ruby 1.9.2. This is my code:
class Service
def initialize(id)
#my_id = id
end
class << self
attr_accessor :shared_id
end
def system_id
#my_id + ##shared_id
end
end
If I set Service.shared_id = "A2", and then call Service.new("A").system_id, this doesn't return "AA2". It displays the following error:
uninitialized class variable ##shared_id in Service
The behaviour is like if I didn't set the Service.service_id. Can someone please explain why this happens?
attr_accessor creates methods to manipulate instance variables — it does not create instance or class variables. To create a class variable, you must set it to something:
##shared_id = something
There's no helper method to generate accessor for class variables, so you have to write them yourself.
However, class variables, because of their weird lookup rules, are rarely used — avoided, even. Instead, instance variables at class-level are used.
class Service
#shared_id = thing
class << self
attr_accessor :shared_id
end
def system_id
# use self.class.shared_id; you could add a shared_id helper to generate it, too.
end
end
How about cattr_accessor?
Remember that ##class_var is global for all classes.
Sometimes I see an instance variable defined as #my_variable. However, sometimes I see self.my_variable. When is each used?
Instance variables (#variable) correspond to private variables in other languages. self.myvariable is actually not a variable, but a call to a method. Similarly, if you write self.myvariable = something, it is actually a call to self.myvariable=(something). This corresponds to properties with getters and setters in other languages.
class Foo
def initialize
#bar = 42
end
def xyzzy
123
end
def xyzzy=(value)
puts "xyzzy set to #{value}!"
end
end
obj = Foo.new
puts obj.xyzzy # prints: 123
obj.xyzzy = 2 # prints: xyzzy set to 2
puts obj.bar # error: undefined method 'bar'
You can use attr_reader and attr_accessor to automatically define getters and setters for an instance variable. attr_reader will only generate a getter, while attr_accessor generates both.
class Parrot
attr_accessor :volts
def voom
puts "vooming at #{#volts} volts!"
end
end
polly = Parrot.new
polly.volts = 4000
polly.voom
Instance variables are more primary things than methods calling them. In self.myVariable, myVariable is a method referring to the instance variable #myVariable, and that method is defined usually by attr_reader or attr_accessor.
One purpose of object orientated programming is to encapsule things particular to an instance inside that instance and make it inaccessible from outside of it. This way, you can avoid unwanted conflicts of name. This is true for instance variables. They are usually parameters to be handeled within the instance, and not to be used outside of it.
Within an instance, its instance variables can be directly referred to, and hence there is no need to refer to them via method calls. You should directly call the variable #myVariable.
From outside of an instance, you cannot directly refer to the instance variables because of the reason mentioned above. But sometimes, you do need to refer to them. The purpose of using the method myVariable is to refer to the instance variable from outside of an instance.
#my_variable refers directly to the instance variable, and is (for the most part) inaccessible from outside that instance.
self.my_variable is using an accessor method (as defined with attr_reader, attr_writer or attr_accessor internally. This is in cases where there may not be an instance variable named #my_variable (as is the case with ActiveRecord model attributes) or where the internal state differs from what is exposed publicly.
I'm really new to Ruby. And by new - less than 16 hours, but my boss gave me some Ruby code to add to. However, I found it was one giant file and not modular at all, so I decided to clean it up. Now that I've broken it up into several files/classes (generally speaking, 1 class per file,) I'm having problems piecing it together for it to work again. Originally everything was part of the same class, so the calls worked, but it looked ugly and it took an entire work day just to figure it out. I want to avoid that for the future as this code will grow much larger before it is done.
My main issue looks like the following (simplified, obviously):
class TestDevice
def initialize
#loghash = { }
....
end
end
class Log
def self.msg(identifier, level, section, message)
...
#loghash[identifier] = { level => { section => message }}
...
end
end
device = TestDevice.new
After that, it calls out to other class methods, and those class methods reference back to the class Log for their logging needs. Of course, Log needs to access "device.loghash" somehow to log the information in that hash. But I can't figure out how to make that happen outside of passing the contents of "loghash" to every method, so that they, in turn, can pass it, and then return the value back to the origination point and then logging it at the end, but that seems really clumsy and awkward.
I'm hoping I am really just missing something.
To create accessors for instance variables the simple way, use attr_accessor.
class TestDevice
attr_accessor :loghash
def initialize
#loghash = { }
....
end
end
You can also manually define an accessor.
class TestDevice
def loghash
#loghash
end
def loghash=(val)
#loghash = val
end
end
This is effectively what attr_accessor does behind the scenes.
how about passing the device object as a parameter to the msg function? (I'm assuming that there can be many devices in your program, otherwise you can use singleton pattern).
class TestDevice
attr_accessor :loghash
def initialize
#loghash = { }
....
end
end
class Log
def self.msg(device, identifier, level, section, message)
...
device.loghash[identifier] = { level => { section => message }}
...
end
end
So you need to learn the rules of ruby scoping.
Ruby variables have different scope, depending on their prefix:
$global_variables start with a $, and are available to everyone.
#instance_variables start with a single #, and are stored with the current value of self. If two
scopes share the same value of self (they're both instance methods, for example),
then both share the same instance variables
##class_variable start with ##, and are stored with the class. They're
shared between all instances of a class - and all instances of subclasses
of that class.
Constants start with a capital letter, and may be all caps. Like class
variables, they're stored with the current self.class, but they also
trickle up the hierarchy - so if you have a class defined in a module,
the instances of the class can access the module's constants as well.
Constants defined outside of a class have global scope.
Note that a constant variable means that which object is bound to the constant
won't change, not that the object itself won't change internal state.
local_variables start with a lowercase letter
You can read more about scope here.
Local variables scoping rules are mainly standard - they're available in
all subscopes of the one in which they are defined except when we move into
a module, class, or method definition. So if we look at your code from your
answer
class TestDevice
attr_accessor :loghash
def initialize
#loghash = { }
end
end
device = TestDevice.new
class Somethingelse
def self.something
device.loghash='something here' # doesn't work
end
end
The scope of the device local variable defined at the toplevel does not include the Somethingelse.something
method definition. So the device local variable used in the Somethingelse.something method definition is a different (empty) variable. If you want the scoping to work that way, you should use a constant or a global variable.
class TestDevice
attr_accessor :loghash
def initialize
#loghash = { }
end
end
DEVICE = TestDevice.new
$has_logged = false
class Somethingelse
def self.something
DEVICE.loghash='something here'
$has_logged = true
end
end
p DEVICE.loghash # prints `{}`
p $has_logged # prints `false`
Somethingelse.something
p DEVICE.loghash # prints `"something here"`
p $has_logged # prints `true`