BasicObject is the parent class of all classes in Ruby. It's an explicit blank class.
BasicObject can be used for creating object hierarchies independent of Ruby's object hierarchy, proxy objects like the Delegator class, or other uses where namespace pollution from Ruby's methods and classes must be avoided.
To avoid polluting BasicObject for other users an appropriately named subclass of BasicObject should be created instead of directly modifying BasicObject:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject end
BasicObject does not include Kernel (for methods like puts
) and BasicObject is outside of the namespace of the
standard library so common classes will not be found without using a full
class path.
A variety of strategies can be used to provide useful portions of the
standard library to subclasses of BasicObject. A subclass could include
Kernel
to obtain puts
, exit
, etc. A
custom Kernel-like module could be created and included or delegation can
be used via method_missing:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject DELEGATE = [:puts, :p] def method_missing(name, *args, &block) super unless DELEGATE.include? name ::Kernel.send(name, *args, &block) end def respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false) DELEGATE.include?(name) or super end end
Access to classes and modules from the Ruby standard library can be
obtained in a BasicObject subclass by
referencing the desired constant from the root like ::File
or
::Enumerator
. Like method_missing,
const_missing can be used to delegate constant lookup to
Object
:
class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject def self.const_missing(name) ::Object.const_get(name) end end
Boolean negate.
VALUE rb_obj_not(VALUE obj) { return RTEST(obj) ? Qfalse : Qtrue; }
Returns true if two objects are not-equal, otherwise false.
VALUE rb_obj_not_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2) { VALUE result = rb_funcall(obj1, id_eq, 1, obj2); return RTEST(result) ? Qfalse : Qtrue; }
Equality — At the Object
level, ==
returns
true
only if obj
and other
are the
same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to
provide class-specific meaning.
Unlike ==
, the equal?
method should never be
overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that
is, a.equal?(b)
if and only if a
is the same
object as b
):
obj = "a" other = obj.dup obj == other #=> true obj.equal? other #=> false obj.equal? obj #=> true
The eql?
method returns true
if obj
and other
refer to the same hash key. This is used by Hash to test members for equality. For objects of
class Object
, eql?
is synonymous with
==
. Subclasses normally continue this tradition by aliasing
eql?
to their overridden ==
method, but there are
exceptions. Numeric
types, for example, perform type
conversion across ==
, but not across eql?
, so:
1 == 1.0 #=> true 1.eql? 1.0 #=> false
VALUE rb_obj_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2) { if (obj1 == obj2) return Qtrue; return Qfalse; }
Returns an integer identifier for obj
.
The same number will be returned on all calls to object_id
for
a given object, and no two active objects will share an id.
Note: that some objects of builtin classes are reused for optimization. This is the case for immediate values and frozen string literals.
Immediate values are not passed by reference but are passed by value:
nil
, true
, false
, Fixnums, Symbols,
and some Floats.
Object.new.object_id == Object.new.object_id # => false (21 * 2).object_id == (21 * 2).object_id # => true "hello".object_id == "hello".object_id # => false "hi".freeze.object_id == "hi".freeze.object_id # => true
VALUE rb_obj_id(VALUE obj) { /* * 32-bit VALUE space * MSB ------------------------ LSB * false 00000000000000000000000000000000 * true 00000000000000000000000000000010 * nil 00000000000000000000000000000100 * undef 00000000000000000000000000000110 * symbol ssssssssssssssssssssssss00001110 * object oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo00 = 0 (mod sizeof(RVALUE)) * fixnum fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1 * * object_id space * LSB * false 00000000000000000000000000000000 * true 00000000000000000000000000000010 * nil 00000000000000000000000000000100 * undef 00000000000000000000000000000110 * symbol 000SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS0 S...S % A = 4 (S...S = s...s * A + 4) * object oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0 o...o % A = 0 * fixnum fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1 bignum if required * * where A = sizeof(RVALUE)/4 * * sizeof(RVALUE) is * 20 if 32-bit, double is 4-byte aligned * 24 if 32-bit, double is 8-byte aligned * 40 if 64-bit */ if (STATIC_SYM_P(obj)) { return (SYM2ID(obj) * sizeof(RVALUE) + (4 << 2)) | FIXNUM_FLAG; } else if (FLONUM_P(obj)) { #if SIZEOF_LONG == SIZEOF_VOIDP return LONG2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj); #else return LL2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj); #endif } else if (SPECIAL_CONST_P(obj)) { return LONG2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj); } return nonspecial_obj_id(obj); }
Invokes the method identified by symbol, passing it any arguments
specified. You can use __send__
if the name send
clashes with an existing method in obj. When the method is
identified by a string, the string is converted to a symbol.
class Klass def hello(*args) "Hello " + args.join(' ') end end k = Klass.new k.send :hello, "gentle", "readers" #=> "Hello gentle readers"
VALUE rb_f_send(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE recv) { return send_internal(argc, argv, recv, CALL_FCALL); }
Equality — At the Object
level, ==
returns
true
only if obj
and other
are the
same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to
provide class-specific meaning.
Unlike ==
, the equal?
method should never be
overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that
is, a.equal?(b)
if and only if a
is the same
object as b
):
obj = "a" other = obj.dup obj == other #=> true obj.equal? other #=> false obj.equal? obj #=> true
The eql?
method returns true
if obj
and other
refer to the same hash key. This is used by Hash to test members for equality. For objects of
class Object
, eql?
is synonymous with
==
. Subclasses normally continue this tradition by aliasing
eql?
to their overridden ==
method, but there are
exceptions. Numeric
types, for example, perform type
conversion across ==
, but not across eql?
, so:
1 == 1.0 #=> true 1.eql? 1.0 #=> false
VALUE rb_obj_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2) { if (obj1 == obj2) return Qtrue; return Qfalse; }
Evaluates a string containing Ruby source code, or the given block, within
the context of the receiver (obj). In order to set the context,
the variable self
is set to obj while the code is
executing, giving the code access to obj's instance variables
and private methods.
When instance_eval
is given a block, obj is also
passed in as the block's only argument.
When instance_eval
is given a String
, the
optional second and third parameters supply a filename and starting line
number that are used when reporting compilation errors.
class KlassWithSecret def initialize @secret = 99 end private def the_secret "Ssssh! The secret is #{@secret}." end end k = KlassWithSecret.new k.instance_eval { @secret } #=> 99 k.instance_eval { the_secret } #=> "Ssssh! The secret is 99." k.instance_eval {|obj| obj == self } #=> true
VALUE rb_obj_instance_eval(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE self) { VALUE klass = singleton_class_for_eval(self); return specific_eval(argc, argv, klass, self); }
Executes the given block within the context of the receiver (obj).
In order to set the context, the variable self
is set to
obj while the code is executing, giving the code access to
obj's instance variables. Arguments are passed as block
parameters.
class KlassWithSecret def initialize @secret = 99 end end k = KlassWithSecret.new k.instance_exec(5) {|x| @secret+x } #=> 104
VALUE rb_obj_instance_exec(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE self) { VALUE klass = singleton_class_for_eval(self); return yield_under(klass, self, argc, argv); }
Invoked by Ruby when obj is sent a message it cannot handle.
symbol is the symbol for the method called, and args are
any arguments that were passed to it. By default, the interpreter raises an
error when this method is called. However, it is possible to override the
method to provide more dynamic behavior. If it is decided that a particular
method should not be handled, then super should be called, so that
ancestors can pick up the missing method. The example below creates a class
Roman
, which responds to methods with names consisting of
roman numerals, returning the corresponding integer values.
class Roman def roman_to_int(str) # ... end def method_missing(methId) str = methId.id2name roman_to_int(str) end end r = Roman.new r.iv #=> 4 r.xxiii #=> 23 r.mm #=> 2000
static VALUE rb_method_missing(int argc, const VALUE *argv, VALUE obj) { rb_thread_t *th = GET_THREAD(); raise_method_missing(th, argc, argv, obj, th->method_missing_reason); UNREACHABLE; }
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is added to the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_added(id) puts "Adding #{id.id2name}" end def self.one() end def two() end def Chatty.three() end end
produces:
Adding singleton_method_added Adding one Adding three
static VALUE rb_obj_dummy(void) { return Qnil; }
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is removed from the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_removed(id) puts "Removing #{id.id2name}" end def self.one() end def two() end def Chatty.three() end class << self remove_method :three remove_method :one end end
produces:
Removing three Removing one
static VALUE rb_obj_dummy(void) { return Qnil; }
Invoked as a callback whenever a singleton method is undefined in the receiver.
module Chatty def Chatty.singleton_method_undefined(id) puts "Undefining #{id.id2name}" end def Chatty.one() end class << self undef_method(:one) end end
produces:
Undefining one
static VALUE rb_obj_dummy(void) { return Qnil; }