Extending Enumerable in Rails 3 - ruby

Question

UPDATE TO QUESTION
Here is what I have done based on some research and findings.
STEP 1 - I have this module in my Rails 3 project and place it in my lib folder
# lib/enumerable.rb
module Enumerable
def sum
return self.inject(0){|acc,i|acc +i}
end
def average
return self.sum/self.length.to_f
end
def sample_variance
avg=self.average
sum=self.inject(0){|acc,i|acc +(i-avg)**2}
return(1/self.length.to_f*sum)
end
def standard_deviation
return Math.sqrt(self.sample_variance)
end
end
STEP 2 - According to this blog article, in Rails 3 your lib folder will not get loaded automatically. In order to load this module you need to go to your config / application.rb and type this in:
config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/lib)
STEP 3 - Then in your model my understanding is you type this in to get the module picked up.
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
include Enumerable
end
STEP 4 - I then try restart the rails server and try this out and I get false when I would expect it to be true.
MyModel.respond_to?('sample_variance')
# false, when it should be true
What am I doing wrong? Should I not be getting true?

Answer 1

Your inclusion of the main Enumerable module (not your extension) undoubtedly worked, and you can test it by simply checking for any of the methods that were mixed in. The problem is, your 'Include Enumerable' may not have included your file, but rather the main module.
One suggestion is to rename the file name for your extension, and have it loaded through an initializer with a
require 'my_enumerable.rb'
That way you for sure get both Enumerable and your extension to Enumerable loaded.

Answer 2

If I understand what you're driving at, you're trying to use Enumerable's sum method in ActiveRecord. You can do that by converting the current object to an array, then calling Enumerable's sum method on that array.
One more thing: you don't need to use return like you are using it. Ruby will return the last calculated thing from your method. You don't need to use self like that either -- in Ruby, self is the current object.
So if you have a method:
def charlie
inject{|i, j| i + j + 1}
end
and you call it like this:
(1..2).charlie
self is the current object (1..2).
The output will be 4, with no self or return.
I highly recommend Dave Thomas' lecture on Ruby metaprogramming, I tried to find it, but I could not, it's out there on the web somewhere.

Answer 3

You might want to take a look at this:
http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_modules.html
You can include a module in a class, and thereby make that module's methods available to that class.
If you include Enumerable into a Rails model, then its methods would be available to that model. But since Enumerable's methods are already available to certain types of objects inside your Rails project, and those objects are available to be instantiated from inside your model, I don't see why you might do that, because Enumerable's methods are working just fine for the purposes they were designed.
Anyway, you might find that one of the following might work for you:
-- use Activerecord's sum method
-- convert your object to an array, and use Enumerable's sum method
-- write your own method, but don't call it sum, because you don't want to confuse yourself.
Try commenting out the second occurrence of module Neuone in the following snippet, and see what happens. Then try commenting out the Charlie.one method, and see what happens.
module Neuone
def one
'neuone one'
end
def two
'neuone two'
end
end
module Neuone
def two
'neuone two two'
end
end
class Charlie
include Neuone
def one
'charlie one'
end
end
c = Charlie.new
p c.one
p c.two