Guides.rubyonrails.org

Chapters

1. 如何加载核心扩展
   • 单独的 Active Support
   • Ruby on Rails 程序里的 Active Support
2. 所有对象都可用的扩展
   • blank? and present?
   • presence
   • duplicable?
   • deep_dup
   • try
   • class_eval(*args, &block)
   • acts_like?(duck)
   • to_param
   • to_query
   • with_options
   • JSON 支持
   • 实例变量
   • Silencing Warnings, Streams, 和 Exceptions
   • in?
3. 对Module的扩展
   • alias_method_chain
   • 属性
   • Parents
   • 常量
   • Reachable
   • Anonymous
   • Method Delegation
   • Redefining Methods
4. Extensions to Class
   • Class Attributes
   • Subclasses & Descendants
5. Extensions to String
   • Output Safety
   • remove
   • squish
   • truncate
   • inquiry
   • starts_with? and ends_with?
   • strip_heredoc
   • indent
   • Access
   • Inflections
   • Conversions
6. Extensions to Numeric
   • Bytes
   • Time
   • Formatting
7. Extensions to Integer
   • multiple_of?
   • ordinal
   • ordinalize
8. Extensions to BigDecimal
   • to_s
   • to_formatted_s
9. Extensions to Enumerable
   • sum
   • index_by
   • many?
   • exclude?
10. Extensions to Array
    • Accessing
    • Adding Elements
    • Options Extraction
    • Conversions
    • Wrapping
    • Duplicating
    • Grouping
11. Extensions to Hash
    • Conversions
    • Merging
    • Deep duplicating
    • Working with Keys
    • Slicing
    • Extracting
    • Indifferent Access
    • Compacting
12. Extensions to Regexp
    • multiline?
13. Extensions to Range
    • to_s
    • include?
    • overlaps?
14. Extensions to Proc
    • bind
15. Extensions to Date
    • Calculations
    • Conversions
16. Extensions to DateTime
    • Calculations
17. Extensions to Time
    • Calculations
    • Time Constructors
18. Extensions to File
    • atomic_write
19. Extensions to Marshal
    • load
20. Extensions to Logger
    • around_[level]
    • silence
    • datetime_format=
21. Extensions to NameError
22. Extensions to LoadError

1 如何加载核心扩展

1.1 单独的 Active Support

为了使初始空间尽可能干净，默认情况下 Active Support 什么都不加载。它被拆分成许多小组件，这样一来你便可以只加载自己需要的那部分，同时它也提供了一系列便捷入口使你很容易加载相关的扩展，甚至把全部扩展都加载进来。

因而，像下面这样只简单用一个 require：

require 'active_support'

对象会连blank?都没法响应。让我们来看下该如何加载它的定义。

1.1.1 选出合适的定义

找到blank?最轻便的方法就是直接找出定义它的那个文件。

对于每一个定义在核心扩展里的方法，本指南都会注明此方法定义于何处。例如这里提到的blank?，会像这样注明：

这意味着你可以像下面这样 require 它：

require 'active_support'
require 'active_support/core_ext/object/blank'

Active Support 经过了严格的修订，确保选定的文件只会加载必要的依赖，若没有则不加载。

1.1.2 加载一组核心扩展

接下来加载Object下的全部扩展。一般来说，想加载SomeClass下的全部可用扩展，只需加载active_support/core_ext/some_class即可。

所以，若要加载Object下的全部扩展（包含blank?）：

require 'active_support'
require 'active_support/core_ext/object'

1.1.3 加载全部核心扩展

你可能更倾向于加载全部核心扩展，有一个文件能办到：

require 'active_support'
require 'active_support/core_ext'

1.1.4 加载全部 Active Support

最后，如果你想要 Active Support 的全部内容，只需：

require 'active_support/all'

这样做并不会把整个 Active Support 预加载到内存里，鉴于autoload的机制，其只有在真正用到时才会加载。

1.2 Ruby on Rails 程序里的 Active Support

除非把config.active_support.bare设置为 true, 否则 Ruby on Rails 的程序会加载全部的 Active Support。如此一来，程序只会加载框架为自身需要挑选出来的扩展，同时也可像上文所示，可以从任何级别加载特定扩展。

2 所有对象都可用的扩展

2.1 blank? and present?

以下各值在 Rails 程序里都看作 blank。

• nil 和 false，

• 只包含空白的字符串(参照下文注释),

• 空的数组和散列表

• 任何其他能响应 empty? 方法且为空的对象。

例如，ActionController::HttpAuthentication::Token::ControllerMethods里的一个方法使用了blank?来检验 token 是否存在。

def authenticate(controller, &login_procedure)
  token, options = token_and_options(controller.request)
  unless token.blank?
    login_procedure.call(token, options)
  end
end

present? 方法等同于 !blank?， 下面的例子出自ActionDispatch::Http::Cache::Response：

def set_conditional_cache_control!
  return if self["Cache-Control"].present?
  ...
end

2.2 presence

presence方法如果满足present?则返回调用者，否则返回nil。它适用于下面这种情况：

host = config[:host].presence || 'localhost'

2.3 duplicable?

A few fundamental objects in Ruby are singletons. For example, in the whole life of a program the integer 1 refers always to the same instance: Ruby 里有些基本对象是单例的。比如，在整个程序的生命周期里，数字1永远指向同一个实例。

1.object_id                 # => 3
Math.cos(0).to_i.object_id  # => 3

因而，这些对象永远没法用dup或clone复制。

true.dup  # => TypeError: can't dup TrueClass

有些数字虽然不是单例的，但也同样无法复制：

0.0.clone        # => allocator undefined for Float
(2**1024).clone  # => allocator undefined for Bignum

Active Support 提供了 duplicable? 方法来判断一个对象是否能够被复制:

"foo".duplicable? # => true
"".duplicable?    # => true
0.0.duplicable?   # => false
false.duplicable? # => false

根据定义，所有的对象的duplicated?的，除了：nil、false、 true、 符号、 数字、 类和模块。

2.4 deep_dup

deep_dup方法返回一个对象的深度拷贝。一般来说，当你dup一个包含其他对象的对象时，Ruby 并不会把被包含的对象一同dup，它只会创建一个对象的浅表拷贝。假如你有一个字符串数组，如下例所示：

array     = ['string']
duplicate = array.dup

duplicate.push 'another-string'

# 对象被复制了，所以只有 duplicate 的数组元素有所增加
array     # => ['string']
duplicate # => ['string', 'another-string']

duplicate.first.gsub!('string', 'foo')

# 第一个数组元素并未被复制，所以两个数组都发生了变化
array     # => ['foo']
duplicate # => ['foo', 'another-string']

如你所见，对Array实例进行复制后，我们得到了另一个对象，因而我们修改它时，原始对象并未跟着有所变化。不过对数组元素而言，情况却有所不同。因为dup不会创建深度拷贝，所以数组里的字符串依然是同一个对象。

如果你需要一个对象的深度拷贝，就应该使用deep_dup。我们再来看下面这个例子：

array     = ['string']
duplicate = array.deep_dup

duplicate.first.gsub!('string', 'foo')

array     # => ['string']
duplicate # => ['foo']

如果一个对象是不可复制的，deep_dup会返回其自身：

number = 1
duplicate = number.deep_dup
number.object_id == duplicate.object_id   # => true

2.5 try

如果你想在一个对象不为nil时，对其调用一个方法，最简单的办法就是使用条件从句，但这么做也会使代码变得乱七八糟。另一个选择就是使用try。try就好比Object#send，只不过如果接收者为nil，那么返回值也会是nil。

看下这个例子：

# 不使用 try
unless @number.nil?
  @number.next
end

# 使用 try
@number.try(:next)

接下来的这个例子，代码出自ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::AbstractAdapter，这里的@logger有可能为nil。能够看到，代码里使用了try来避免不必要的检查。

def log_info(sql, name, ms)
  if @logger.try(:debug?)
    name = '%s (%.1fms)' % [name || 'SQL', ms]
    @logger.debug(format_log_entry(name, sql.squeeze(' ')))
  end
end

调用try时也可以不传参数而是用代码快，其中的代码只有在对象不为nil时才会执行：

@person.try { |p| "#{p.first_name} #{p.last_name}" }

2.6 class_eval(*args, &block)

You can evaluate code in the context of any object's singleton class using class_eval: 使用class_eval，可以使代码在对象的单件类的上下文里执行：

class Proc
  def bind(object)
    block, time = self, Time.current
    object.class_eval do
      method_name = "__bind_#{time.to_i}_#{time.usec}"
      define_method(method_name, &block)
      method = instance_method(method_name)
      remove_method(method_name)
      method
    end.bind(object)
  end
end

2.7 acts_like?(duck)

acts_like?方法可以用来判断某个类与另一个类是否有相同的行为，它基于一个简单的惯例：这个类是否提供了与String相同的接口：

def acts_like_string?
end

上述代码只是一个标识，它的方法体或返回值都是不相关的。之后，就可以像下述代码那样判断其代码是否为“鸭子类型安全”的代码了：

some_klass.acts_like?(:string)

Rails 里的许多类，例如Date和Time，都遵循上述约定。

2.8 to_param

所有 Rails 对象都可以响应to_param方法，它会把对象的值转换为查询字符串，或者 URL 片段，并返回该值。

默认情况下，to_param仅仅调用了to_s：

7.to_param # => "7"

不要对to_param方法的返回值进行转义：

"Tom & Jerry".to_param # => "Tom & Jerry"

Rails 里的许多类重写了这个方法。

例如nil、true和false会返回其自身。Array#to_param会对数组元素调用to_param并把结果用"/"连接成字符串：

[0, true, String].to_param # => "0/true/String"

需要注意的是， Rails 的路由系统会在模型上调用to_param并把结果作为:id占位符。ActiveRecord::Base#to_param会返回模型的id，但是你也可以在自己模型里重新定义它。例如：

class User
  def to_param
    "#{id}-#{name.parameterize}"
  end
end

会得到：

user_path(@user) # => "/users/357-john-smith"

2.9 to_query

除了散列表之外，给定一个未转义的key，这个方法就会基于这个键和to_param的返回值，构造出一个新的查询字符串。例如：

class User
  def to_param
    "#{id}-#{name.parameterize}"
  end
end

会得到：

current_user.to_query('user') # => "user=357-john-smith"

无论对于键还是值，本方法都会根据需要进行转义：

account.to_query('company[name]')
# => "company%5Bname%5D=Johnson+%26+Johnson"

所以它的输出已经完全适合于用作查询字符串。

对于数组，会对其中每个元素以_key_[]为键执行to_query方法，并把结果用"&"连接为字符串：

[3.4, -45.6].to_query('sample')
# => "sample%5B%5D=3.4&sample%5B%5D=-45.6"

哈系表也可以响应to_query方法但是用法有所不同。如果调用时没传参数，会先生成一系列排过序的键值对并在值上调用to_query(键)。然后把所得结果用"&"连接为字符串：

{c: 3, b: 2, a: 1}.to_query # => "a=1&b=2&c=3"

Hash#to_query方法也可接受一个可选的命名空间作为键：

{id: 89, name: "John Smith"}.to_query('user')
# => "user%5Bid%5D=89&user%5Bname%5D=John+Smith"

2.10 with_options

with_options方法可以为一组方法调用提取出共有的选项。

假定有一个默认的散列表选项，with_options方法会引入一个代理对象到代码块。在代码块内部，代理对象上的方法调用，会连同被混入的选项一起，被转发至原方法接收者。例如，若要去除下述代码的重复内容：

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :customers, dependent: :destroy
  has_many :products,  dependent: :destroy
  has_many :invoices,  dependent: :destroy
  has_many :expenses,  dependent: :destroy
end

可按此法书写：

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options dependent: :destroy do |assoc|
    assoc.has_many :customers
    assoc.has_many :products
    assoc.has_many :invoices
    assoc.has_many :expenses
  end
end

TODO: clear this after totally understanding what these statnances means...

That idiom may convey grouping to the reader as well. For example, say you want to send a newsletter whose language depends on the user. Somewhere in the mailer you could group locale-dependent bits like this: 上述写法也可用于对读取器进行分组。例如，假设你要发一份新闻通讯，通讯所用语言取决于用户。便可以利用如下例所示代码，对用户按照地区依赖进行分组：

I18n.with_options locale: user.locale, scope: "newsletter" do |i18n|
  subject i18n.t :subject
  body    i18n.t :body, user_name: user.name
end

2.11 JSON 支持

相较于 json gem 为 Ruby 对象提供的to_json方法，Active Support 给出了一个更好的实现。因为有许多类，诸如Hash、OrderedHash和Process::Status，都需要做特殊处理才能到适合的 JSON 替换。

2.12 实例变量

Active Support 提供了若干方法以简化对实例变量的访问。

2.12.1 instance_values

instance_values方法返回一个散列表，其中会把实例变量名去掉"@"作为键，把相应的实例变量值作为值。键全部是字符串：

class C
  def initialize(x, y)
    @x, @y = x, y
  end
end

C.new(0, 1).instance_values # => {"x" => 0, "y" => 1}

2.12.2 instance_variable_names

instance_variable_names方法返回一个数组。数组中所有的实例变量名都带有"@"标志。

class C
  def initialize(x, y)
    @x, @y = x, y
  end
end

C.new(0, 1).instance_variable_names # => ["@x", "@y"]

2.13 Silencing Warnings, Streams, 和 Exceptions

silence_warnings和enable_warnings方法都可以在其代码块里改变$VERBOSE的值，并在之后把值重置：

silence_warnings { Object.const_set "RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER", logger }

You can silence any stream while a block runs with silence_stream: 在通过silence_stream执行的代码块里，可以使任意流安静的运行：

silence_stream(STDOUT) do
  # 这里的代码不会输出到 STDOUT
end

quietly方法可以使 STDOUT 和 STDERR 保持安静，即便在子进程里也如此：

quietly { system 'bundle install' }

例如，railties 测试组件会用到上述方法，来阻止普通消息与进度状态混到一起。

也可以用suppress方法来使异常保持安静。方法接收任意数量的异常类。如果代码块的代码执行时报出异常，并且该异常kind_of?满足任一参数，suppress便会将异其捕获并安静的返回。否则会重新抛出该异常：

# If the user is locked the increment is lost, no big deal.
suppress(ActiveRecord::StaleObjectError) do
  current_user.increment! :visits
end

2.14 in?

判断式in?用于测试一个对象是否被包含在另一个对象里。当传入的参数无法响应include?时，会抛出ArgumentError异常。

使用in?的例子：

1.in?([1,2])        # => true
"lo".in?("hello")   # => true
25.in?(30..50)      # => false
1.in?(1)            # => ArgumentError

3 对Module的扩展

3.1 alias_method_chain

使用纯 Ruby 可以用方法环绕其他的方法，这种做法被称为环绕别名。

例如，我们假设在功能测试里你希望参数都是字符串，就如同真实的请求中那样，但是同时你也希望对于数字和其他类型的值能够很方便的赋值。为了做到这点，你可以把test/test_helper.rb里的ActionController::TestCase#process方法像下面这样环绕：

ActionController::TestCase.class_eval do
  # save a reference to the original process method
  alias_method :original_process, :process

  # now redefine process and delegate to original_process
  def process(action, params=nil, session=nil, flash=nil, http_method='GET')
    params = Hash[*params.map {|k, v| [k, v.to_s]}.flatten]
    original_process(action, params, session, flash, http_method)
  end
end

get、post等最终会通过此方法执行。

这么做有一定风险，:original_process有可能已经被占用了。为了避免方法名发生碰撞，通常会添加标签来表明这是个关于什么的别名：

ActionController::TestCase.class_eval do
  def process_with_stringified_params(...)
    params = Hash[*params.map {|k, v| [k, v.to_s]}.flatten]
    process_without_stringified_params(action, params, session, flash, http_method)
  end
  alias_method :process_without_stringified_params, :process
  alias_method :process, :process_with_stringified_params
end

alias_method_chain为上述技巧提供了一个便捷之法：

ActionController::TestCase.class_eval do
  def process_with_stringified_params(...)
    params = Hash[*params.map {|k, v| [k, v.to_s]}.flatten]
    process_without_stringified_params(action, params, session, flash, http_method)
  end
  alias_method_chain :process, :stringified_params
end

Rails 源代码中随处可见alias_method_chain。例如ActiveRecord::Base#save里，就通过这种方式对方法进行环绕，从 validations 下一个专门的模块里为其增加了验证。

3.2 属性

3.2.1 alias_attribute

模型属性包含读取器、写入器和判断式。只需添加一行代码，就可以为模型属性添加一个包含以上三个方法的别名。与其他别名方法一样，新名称充当第一个参数，原有名称是第二个参数（为了方便记忆，可以类比下赋值时的书写顺序）。

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  # You can refer to the email column as "login".
  # This can be meaningful for authentication code.
  alias_attribute :login, :email
end

3.2.2 内部属性

当你在一个被继承的类里定义一条属性时，属性名称有可能会发生碰撞。这一点对许多库而言尤为重要。

Active Support 定义了attr_internal_reader、attr_internal_writer和attr_internal_accessor这些类宏。它们的作用与 Ruby 内建的attr_*相当，只不过实例变量名多了下划线以避免碰撞。

类宏attr_internal与attr_internal_accessor是同义：

# library
class ThirdPartyLibrary::Crawler
  attr_internal :log_level
end

# client code
class MyCrawler < ThirdPartyLibrary::Crawler
  attr_accessor :log_level
end

上述例子里的情况可能是，:log_level并不属于库的公共接口，而是只用于开发。而在客户代码里，由于不知道可能出现的冲突，便在子类里又定义了:log_level。多亏了attr_internal才没有出项碰撞。

默认情况下，内部实例变量名以下划线开头，如上例中即为@_log_level。不过这点可以通过Module.attr_internal_naming_format进行配置，你可以传入任何sprintf这一类的格式化字符串，并在开头加上@，同时还要加上%s表示变量名称的位置。默认值为"@_%s"。

Rails 在若干地方使用了内部属性，比如在视图层：

module ActionView
  class Base
    attr_internal :captures
    attr_internal :request, :layout
    attr_internal :controller, :template
  end
end

3.2.3 Module Attributes

类宏mattr_reader、mattr_writer和mattr_accessor与为类定义的cattr_*是相同的。实际上，cattr_*系列的类宏只不过是mattr_*这些类宏的别名。详见Class Attributes。

例如，依赖性机制就用到了它们：

module ActiveSupport
  module Dependencies
    mattr_accessor :warnings_on_first_load
    mattr_accessor :history
    mattr_accessor :loaded
    mattr_accessor :mechanism
    mattr_accessor :load_paths
    mattr_accessor :load_once_paths
    mattr_accessor :autoloaded_constants
    mattr_accessor :explicitly_unloadable_constants
    mattr_accessor :logger
    mattr_accessor :log_activity
    mattr_accessor :constant_watch_stack
    mattr_accessor :constant_watch_stack_mutex
  end
end

3.3 Parents

3.3.1 parent

对一个嵌套的模块调用parent方法，会返回其相应的常量：

module X
  module Y
    module Z
    end
  end
end
M = X::Y::Z

X::Y::Z.parent # => X::Y
M.parent       # => X::Y

如果这个模块是匿名的或者属于顶级作用域， parent会返回Object。

3.3.2 parent_name

对一个嵌套的模块调用parent_name方法，会返回其相应常量的完全限定名：

module X
  module Y
    module Z
    end
  end
end
M = X::Y::Z

X::Y::Z.parent_name # => "X::Y"
M.parent_name       # => "X::Y"

定义在顶级作用域里的模块或匿名的模块，parent_name会返回nil。

3.3.3 parents

parents方法会对接收者调用parent，并向上追溯直至Object。之后所得结果链按由低到高顺序组成一个数组被返回。

module X
  module Y
    module Z
    end
  end
end
M = X::Y::Z

X::Y::Z.parents # => [X::Y, X, Object]
M.parents       # => [X::Y, X, Object]

3.4 常量

defined in the receiver module: local_constants方法返回在接收者模块中定义的常量。

module X
  X1 = 1
  X2 = 2
  module Y
    Y1 = :y1
    X1 = :overrides_X1_above
  end
end

X.local_constants    # => [:X1, :X2, :Y]
X::Y.local_constants # => [:Y1, :X1]

常量名会作为符号被返回。

3.4.1 限定常量名

标准方法const_defined?、const_get和const_set接受裸常量名。 Active Support 扩展了这些API使其可以接受相对限定常量名。

新的方法名是qualified_const_defined?，qualified_const_get和qualified_const_set。 它们的参数被假定为相对于其接收者的限定常量名：

Object.qualified_const_defined?("Math::PI")       # => true
Object.qualified_const_get("Math::PI")            # => 3.141592653589793
Object.qualified_const_set("Math::Phi", 1.618034) # => 1.618034

参数可以使用裸常量名：

Math.qualified_const_get("E") # => 2.718281828459045

These methods are analogous to their built-in counterparts. In particular, qualified_constant_defined? accepts an optional second argument to be able to say whether you want the predicate to look in the ancestors. This flag is taken into account for each constant in the expression while walking down the path. 这些方法与其内建的对应方法很类似。尤为值得一提的是，qualified_constant_defined?接收一个可选的第二参数，以此来标明你是否要在祖先链中进行查找。

例如，假定：

module M
  X = 1
end

module N
  class C
    include M
  end
end

qualified_const_defined?会这样执行：

N.qualified_const_defined?("C::X", false) # => false
N.qualified_const_defined?("C::X", true)  # => true
N.qualified_const_defined?("C::X")        # => true

As the last example implies, the second argument defaults to true, as in const_defined?.

For coherence with the built-in methods only relative paths are accepted. Absolute qualified constant names like ::Math::PI raise NameError.

3.5 Reachable

A named module is reachable if it is stored in its corresponding constant. It means you can reach the module object via the constant.

That is what ordinarily happens, if a module is called "M", the M constant exists and holds it:

module M
end

M.reachable? # => true

But since constants and modules are indeed kind of decoupled, module objects can become unreachable:

module M
end

orphan = Object.send(:remove_const, :M)

# The module object is orphan now but it still has a name.
orphan.name # => "M"

# You cannot reach it via the constant M because it does not even exist.
orphan.reachable? # => false

# Let's define a module called "M" again.
module M
end

# The constant M exists now again, and it stores a module
# object called "M", but it is a new instance.
orphan.reachable? # => false

3.6 Anonymous

A module may or may not have a name:

module M
end
M.name # => "M"

N = Module.new
N.name # => "N"

Module.new.name # => nil

You can check whether a module has a name with the predicate anonymous?:

module M
end
M.anonymous? # => false

Module.new.anonymous? # => true

Note that being unreachable does not imply being anonymous:

module M
end

m = Object.send(:remove_const, :M)

m.reachable? # => false
m.anonymous? # => false

though an anonymous module is unreachable by definition.

3.7 Method Delegation

The macro delegate offers an easy way to forward methods.

Let's imagine that users in some application have login information in the User model but name and other data in a separate Profile model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :profile
end

With that configuration you get a user's name via their profile, user.profile.name, but it could be handy to still be able to access such attribute directly:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :profile

  def name
    profile.name
  end
end

That is what delegate does for you:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :profile

  delegate :name, to: :profile
end

It is shorter, and the intention more obvious.

The method must be public in the target.

The delegate macro accepts several methods:

delegate :name, :age, :address, :twitter, to: :profile

When interpolated into a string, the :to option should become an expression that evaluates to the object the method is delegated to. Typically a string or symbol. Such an expression is evaluated in the context of the receiver:

# delegates to the Rails constant
delegate :logger, to: :Rails

# delegates to the receiver's class
delegate :table_name, to: :class

By default, if the delegation raises NoMethodError and the target is nil the exception is propagated. You can ask that nil is returned instead with the :allow_nil option:

delegate :name, to: :profile, allow_nil: true

With :allow_nil the call user.name returns nil if the user has no profile.

The option :prefix adds a prefix to the name of the generated method. This may be handy for example to get a better name:

delegate :street, to: :address, prefix: true

The previous example generates address_street rather than street.

A custom prefix may also be configured:

delegate :size, to: :attachment, prefix: :avatar

In the previous example the macro generates avatar_size rather than size.

3.8 Redefining Methods

There are cases where you need to define a method with define_method, but don't know whether a method with that name already exists. If it does, a warning is issued if they are enabled. No big deal, but not clean either.

The method redefine_method prevents such a potential warning, removing the existing method before if needed.

4 Extensions to Class

4.1 Class Attributes

4.1.1 class_attribute

The method class_attribute declares one or more inheritable class attributes that can be overridden at any level down the hierarchy.

class A
  class_attribute :x
end

class B < A; end

class C < B; end

A.x = :a
B.x # => :a
C.x # => :a

B.x = :b
A.x # => :a
C.x # => :b

C.x = :c
A.x # => :a
B.x # => :b

For example ActionMailer::Base defines:

class_attribute :default_params
self.default_params = {
  mime_version: "1.0",
  charset: "UTF-8",
  content_type: "text/plain",
  parts_order: [ "text/plain", "text/enriched", "text/html" ]
}.freeze

They can be also accessed and overridden at the instance level.

A.x = 1

a1 = A.new
a2 = A.new
a2.x = 2

a1.x # => 1, comes from A
a2.x # => 2, overridden in a2

The generation of the writer instance method can be prevented by setting the option :instance_writer to false.

module ActiveRecord
  class Base
    class_attribute :table_name_prefix, instance_writer: false
    self.table_name_prefix = ""
  end
end

A model may find that option useful as a way to prevent mass-assignment from setting the attribute.

The generation of the reader instance method can be prevented by setting the option :instance_reader to false.

class A
  class_attribute :x, instance_reader: false
end

A.new.x = 1 # NoMethodError

For convenience class_attribute also defines an instance predicate which is the double negation of what the instance reader returns. In the examples above it would be called x?.

When :instance_reader is false, the instance predicate returns a NoMethodError just like the reader method.

If you do not want the instance predicate, pass instance_predicate: false and it will not be defined.

4.1.2 cattr_reader, cattr_writer, and cattr_accessor

The macros cattr_reader, cattr_writer, and cattr_accessor are analogous to their attr_* counterparts but for classes. They initialize a class variable to nil unless it already exists, and generate the corresponding class methods to access it:

class MysqlAdapter < AbstractAdapter
  # Generates class methods to access @@emulate_booleans.
  cattr_accessor :emulate_booleans
  self.emulate_booleans = true
end

Instance methods are created as well for convenience, they are just proxies to the class attribute. So, instances can change the class attribute, but cannot override it as it happens with class_attribute (see above). For example given

module ActionView
  class Base
    cattr_accessor :field_error_proc
    @@field_error_proc = Proc.new{ ... }
  end
end

we can access field_error_proc in views.

Also, you can pass a block to cattr_* to set up the attribute with a default value:

class MysqlAdapter < AbstractAdapter
  # Generates class methods to access @@emulate_booleans with default value of true.
  cattr_accessor(:emulate_booleans) { true }
end

The generation of the reader instance method can be prevented by setting :instance_reader to false and the generation of the writer instance method can be prevented by setting :instance_writer to false. Generation of both methods can be prevented by setting :instance_accessor to false. In all cases, the value must be exactly false and not any false value.

module A
  class B
    # No first_name instance reader is generated.
    cattr_accessor :first_name, instance_reader: false
    # No last_name= instance writer is generated.
    cattr_accessor :last_name, instance_writer: false
    # No surname instance reader or surname= writer is generated.
    cattr_accessor :surname, instance_accessor: false
  end
end

A model may find it useful to set :instance_accessor to false as a way to prevent mass-assignment from setting the attribute.

4.2 Subclasses & Descendants

4.2.1 subclasses

The subclasses method returns the subclasses of the receiver:

class C; end
C.subclasses # => []

class B < C; end
C.subclasses # => [B]

class A < B; end
C.subclasses # => [B]

class D < C; end
C.subclasses # => [B, D]

The order in which these classes are returned is unspecified.

4.2.2 descendants

The descendants method returns all classes that are < than its receiver:

class C; end
C.descendants # => []

class B < C; end
C.descendants # => [B]

class A < B; end
C.descendants # => [B, A]

class D < C; end
C.descendants # => [B, A, D]

The order in which these classes are returned is unspecified.

5 Extensions to String

5.1 Output Safety

5.1.1 Motivation

Inserting data into HTML templates needs extra care. For example, you can't just interpolate @review.title verbatim into an HTML page. For one thing, if the review title is "Flanagan & Matz rules!" the output won't be well-formed because an ampersand has to be escaped as "&". What's more, depending on the application, that may be a big security hole because users can inject malicious HTML setting a hand-crafted review title. Check out the section about cross-site scripting in the Security guide for further information about the risks.

5.1.2 Safe Strings

Active Support has the concept of (html) safe strings. A safe string is one that is marked as being insertable into HTML as is. It is trusted, no matter whether it has been escaped or not.

Strings are considered to be unsafe by default:

"".html_safe? # => false

You can obtain a safe string from a given one with the html_safe method:

s = "".html_safe
s.html_safe? # => true

It is important to understand that html_safe performs no escaping whatsoever, it is just an assertion:

s = "<script>...</script>".html_safe
s.html_safe? # => true
s            # => "<script>...</script>"

It is your responsibility to ensure calling html_safe on a particular string is fine.

If you append onto a safe string, either in-place with concat/<<, or with +, the result is a safe string. Unsafe arguments are escaped:

"".html_safe + "<" # => "&lt;"

Safe arguments are directly appended:

"".html_safe + "<".html_safe # => "<"

These methods should not be used in ordinary views. Unsafe values are automatically escaped:

<%= @review.title %> <%# fine, escaped if needed %>

To insert something verbatim use the raw helper rather than calling html_safe:

<%= raw @cms.current_template %> <%# inserts @cms.current_template as is %>

or, equivalently, use <%==:

<%== @cms.current_template %> <%# inserts @cms.current_template as is %>

The raw helper calls html_safe for you:

def raw(stringish)
  stringish.to_s.html_safe
end

5.1.3 Transformation

As a rule of thumb, except perhaps for concatenation as explained above, any method that may change a string gives you an unsafe string. These are downcase, gsub, strip, chomp, underscore, etc.

In the case of in-place transformations like gsub! the receiver itself becomes unsafe.

5.1.4 Conversion and Coercion

Calling to_s on a safe string returns a safe string, but coercion with to_str returns an unsafe string.

5.1.5 Copying

Calling dup or clone on safe strings yields safe strings.

5.2 remove

The method remove will remove all occurrences of the pattern:

"Hello World".remove(/Hello /) => "World"

There's also the destructive version String#remove!.

5.3 squish

The method squish strips leading and trailing whitespace, and substitutes runs of whitespace with a single space each:

" \n  foo\n\r \t bar \n".squish # => "foo bar"

There's also the destructive version String#squish!.

Note that it handles both ASCII and Unicode whitespace like mongolian vowel separator (U+180E).

5.4 truncate

The method truncate returns a copy of its receiver truncated after a given length:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!".truncate(20)
# => "Oh dear! Oh dear!..."

Ellipsis can be customized with the :omission option:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!".truncate(20, omission: '…')
# => "Oh dear! Oh …"

Note in particular that truncation takes into account the length of the omission string.

Pass a :separator to truncate the string at a natural break:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!".truncate(18)
# => "Oh dear! Oh dea..."
"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!".truncate(18, separator: ' ')
# => "Oh dear! Oh..."

The option :separator can be a regexp:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!".truncate(18, separator: /\s/)
# => "Oh dear! Oh..."

In above examples "dear" gets cut first, but then :separator prevents it.

5.5 inquiry

The inquiry method converts a string into a StringInquirer object making equality checks prettier.

"production".inquiry.production? # => true
"active".inquiry.inactive?       # => false

5.6 starts_with? and ends_with?

Active Support defines 3rd person aliases of String#start_with? and String#end_with?:

"foo".starts_with?("f") # => true
"foo".ends_with?("o")   # => true

5.7 strip_heredoc

The method strip_heredoc strips indentation in heredocs.

For example in

if options[:usage]
  puts <<-USAGE.strip_heredoc
    This command does such and such.

    Supported options are:
      -h         This message
      ...
  USAGE
end

the user would see the usage message aligned against the left margin.

Technically, it looks for the least indented line in the whole string, and removes that amount of leading whitespace.

5.8 indent

Indents the lines in the receiver:

<<EOS.indent(2)
def some_method
  some_code
end
EOS
# =>
  def some_method
    some_code
  end

The second argument, indent_string, specifies which indent string to use. The default is nil, which tells the method to make an educated guess peeking at the first indented line, and fallback to a space if there is none.

"  foo".indent(2)        # => "    foo"
"foo\n\t\tbar".indent(2) # => "\t\tfoo\n\t\t\t\tbar"
"foo".indent(2, "\t")    # => "\t\tfoo"

While indent_string is typically one space or tab, it may be any string.

The third argument, indent_empty_lines, is a flag that says whether empty lines should be indented. Default is false.

"foo\n\nbar".indent(2)            # => "  foo\n\n  bar"
"foo\n\nbar".indent(2, nil, true) # => "  foo\n  \n  bar"

The indent! method performs indentation in-place.

5.9 Access

5.9.1 at(position)

Returns the character of the string at position position:

"hello".at(0)  # => "h"
"hello".at(4)  # => "o"
"hello".at(-1) # => "o"
"hello".at(10) # => nil

5.9.2 from(position)

Returns the substring of the string starting at position position:

"hello".from(0)  # => "hello"
"hello".from(2)  # => "llo"
"hello".from(-2) # => "lo"
"hello".from(10) # => "" if < 1.9, nil in 1.9

5.9.3 to(position)

Returns the substring of the string up to position position:

"hello".to(0)  # => "h"
"hello".to(2)  # => "hel"
"hello".to(-2) # => "hell"
"hello".to(10) # => "hello"

5.9.4 first(limit = 1)

The call str.first(n) is equivalent to str.to(n-1) if n > 0, and returns an empty string for n == 0.

5.9.5 last(limit = 1)

The call str.last(n) is equivalent to str.from(-n) if n > 0, and returns an empty string for n == 0.

5.10 Inflections

5.10.1 pluralize

The method pluralize returns the plural of its receiver:

"table".pluralize     # => "tables"
"ruby".pluralize      # => "rubies"
"equipment".pluralize # => "equipment"

As the previous example shows, Active Support knows some irregular plurals and uncountable nouns. Built-in rules can be extended in config/initializers/inflections.rb. That file is generated by the rails command and has instructions in comments.

pluralize can also take an optional count parameter. If count == 1 the singular form will be returned. For any other value of count the plural form will be returned:

"dude".pluralize(0) # => "dudes"
"dude".pluralize(1) # => "dude"
"dude".pluralize(2) # => "dudes"

Active Record uses this method to compute the default table name that corresponds to a model:

# active_record/model_schema.rb
def undecorated_table_name(class_name = base_class.name)
  table_name = class_name.to_s.demodulize.underscore
  pluralize_table_names ? table_name.pluralize : table_name
end

5.10.2 singularize

The inverse of pluralize:

"tables".singularize    # => "table"
"rubies".singularize    # => "ruby"
"equipment".singularize # => "equipment"

Associations compute the name of the corresponding default associated class using this method:

# active_record/reflection.rb
def derive_class_name
  class_name = name.to_s.camelize
  class_name = class_name.singularize if collection?
  class_name
end

5.10.3 camelize

The method camelize returns its receiver in camel case:

"product".camelize    # => "Product"
"admin_user".camelize # => "AdminUser"

As a rule of thumb you can think of this method as the one that transforms paths into Ruby class or module names, where slashes separate namespaces:

"backoffice/session".camelize # => "Backoffice::Session"

For example, Action Pack uses this method to load the class that provides a certain session store:

# action_controller/metal/session_management.rb
def session_store=(store)
  @@session_store = store.is_a?(Symbol) ?
    ActionDispatch::Session.const_get(store.to_s.camelize) :
    store
end

camelize accepts an optional argument, it can be :upper (default), or :lower. With the latter the first letter becomes lowercase:

"visual_effect".camelize(:lower) # => "visualEffect"

That may be handy to compute method names in a language that follows that convention, for example JavaScript.

ActiveSupport::Inflector.inflections do |inflect|
  inflect.acronym 'SSL'
end

"SSLError".underscore.camelize # => "SSLError"

camelize is aliased to camelcase.

5.10.4 underscore

The method underscore goes the other way around, from camel case to paths:

"Product".underscore   # => "product"
"AdminUser".underscore # => "admin_user"

Also converts "::" back to "/":

"Backoffice::Session".underscore # => "backoffice/session"

and understands strings that start with lowercase:

"visualEffect".underscore # => "visual_effect"

underscore accepts no argument though.

Rails class and module autoloading uses underscore to infer the relative path without extension of a file that would define a given missing constant:

# active_support/dependencies.rb
def load_missing_constant(from_mod, const_name)
  ...
  qualified_name = qualified_name_for from_mod, const_name
  path_suffix = qualified_name.underscore
  ...
end

5.10.5 titleize

The method titleize capitalizes the words in the receiver:

"alice in wonderland".titleize # => "Alice In Wonderland"
"fermat's enigma".titleize     # => "Fermat's Enigma"

titleize is aliased to titlecase.

5.10.6 dasherize

The method dasherize replaces the underscores in the receiver with dashes:

"name".dasherize         # => "name"
"contact_data".dasherize # => "contact-data"

The XML serializer of models uses this method to dasherize node names:

# active_model/serializers/xml.rb
def reformat_name(name)
  name = name.camelize if camelize?
  dasherize? ? name.dasherize : name
end

5.10.7 demodulize

Given a string with a qualified constant name, demodulize returns the very constant name, that is, the rightmost part of it:

"Product".demodulize                        # => "Product"
"Backoffice::UsersController".demodulize    # => "UsersController"
"Admin::Hotel::ReservationUtils".demodulize # => "ReservationUtils"
"::Inflections".demodulize                  # => "Inflections"
"".demodulize                               # => ""

Active Record for example uses this method to compute the name of a counter cache column:

# active_record/reflection.rb
def counter_cache_column
  if options[:counter_cache] == true
    "#{active_record.name.demodulize.underscore.pluralize}_count"
  elsif options[:counter_cache]
    options[:counter_cache]
  end
end

5.10.8 deconstantize

Given a string with a qualified constant reference expression, deconstantize removes the rightmost segment, generally leaving the name of the constant's container:

"Product".deconstantize                        # => ""
"Backoffice::UsersController".deconstantize    # => "Backoffice"
"Admin::Hotel::ReservationUtils".deconstantize # => "Admin::Hotel"

Active Support for example uses this method in Module#qualified_const_set:

def qualified_const_set(path, value)
  QualifiedConstUtils.raise_if_absolute(path)

  const_name = path.demodulize
  mod_name = path.deconstantize
  mod = mod_name.empty? ? self : qualified_const_get(mod_name)
  mod.const_set(const_name, value)
end

5.10.9 parameterize

The method parameterize normalizes its receiver in a way that can be used in pretty URLs.

"John Smith".parameterize # => "john-smith"
"Kurt Gödel".parameterize # => "kurt-godel"

In fact, the result string is wrapped in an instance of ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Chars.

5.10.10 tableize

The method tableize is underscore followed by pluralize.

"Person".tableize      # => "people"
"Invoice".tableize     # => "invoices"
"InvoiceLine".tableize # => "invoice_lines"

As a rule of thumb, tableize returns the table name that corresponds to a given model for simple cases. The actual implementation in Active Record is not straight tableize indeed, because it also demodulizes the class name and checks a few options that may affect the returned string.

5.10.11 classify

The method classify is the inverse of tableize. It gives you the class name corresponding to a table name:

"people".classify        # => "Person"
"invoices".classify      # => "Invoice"
"invoice_lines".classify # => "InvoiceLine"

The method understands qualified table names:

"highrise_production.companies".classify # => "Company"

Note that classify returns a class name as a string. You can get the actual class object invoking constantize on it, explained next.

5.10.12 constantize

The method constantize resolves the constant reference expression in its receiver:

"Fixnum".constantize # => Fixnum

module M
  X = 1
end
"M::X".constantize # => 1

If the string evaluates to no known constant, or its content is not even a valid constant name, constantize raises NameError.

Constant name resolution by constantize starts always at the top-level Object even if there is no leading "::".

X = :in_Object
module M
  X = :in_M

  X                 # => :in_M
  "::X".constantize # => :in_Object
  "X".constantize   # => :in_Object (!)
end

So, it is in general not equivalent to what Ruby would do in the same spot, had a real constant be evaluated.

Mailer test cases obtain the mailer being tested from the name of the test class using constantize:

# action_mailer/test_case.rb
def determine_default_mailer(name)
  name.sub(/Test$/, '').constantize
rescue NameError => e
  raise NonInferrableMailerError.new(name)
end

5.10.13 humanize

The method humanize tweaks an attribute name for display to end users.

Specifically performs these transformations:

• Applies human inflection rules to the argument.
• Deletes leading underscores, if any.
• Removes a "_id" suffix if present.
• Replaces underscores with spaces, if any.
• Downcases all words except acronyms.
• Capitalizes the first word.

The capitalization of the first word can be turned off by setting the +:capitalize+ option to false (default is true).

"name".humanize                         # => "Name"
"author_id".humanize                    # => "Author"
"author_id".humanize(capitalize: false) # => "author"
"comments_count".humanize               # => "Comments count"
"_id".humanize                          # => "Id"

If "SSL" was defined to be an acronym:

'ssl_error'.humanize # => "SSL error"

The helper method full_messages uses humanize as a fallback to include attribute names:

def full_messages
  full_messages = []

  each do |attribute, messages|
    ...
    attr_name = attribute.to_s.gsub('.', '_').humanize
    attr_name = @base.class.human_attribute_name(attribute, default: attr_name)
    ...
  end

  full_messages
end

5.10.14 foreign_key

The method foreign_key gives a foreign key column name from a class name. To do so it demodulizes, underscores, and adds "_id":

"User".foreign_key           # => "user_id"
"InvoiceLine".foreign_key    # => "invoice_line_id"
"Admin::Session".foreign_key # => "session_id"

Pass a false argument if you do not want the underscore in "_id":

"User".foreign_key(false) # => "userid"

Associations use this method to infer foreign keys, for example has_one and has_many do this:

# active_record/associations.rb
foreign_key = options[:foreign_key] || reflection.active_record.name.foreign_key

5.11 Conversions

5.11.1 to_date, to_time, to_datetime

The methods to_date, to_time, and to_datetime are basically convenience wrappers around Date._parse:

"2010-07-27".to_date              # => Tue, 27 Jul 2010
"2010-07-27 23:37:00".to_time     # => Tue Jul 27 23:37:00 UTC 2010
"2010-07-27 23:37:00".to_datetime # => Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:37:00 +0000

to_time receives an optional argument :utc or :local, to indicate which time zone you want the time in:

"2010-07-27 23:42:00".to_time(:utc)   # => Tue Jul 27 23:42:00 UTC 2010
"2010-07-27 23:42:00".to_time(:local) # => Tue Jul 27 23:42:00 +0200 2010

Default is :utc.

Please refer to the documentation of Date._parse for further details.

6 Extensions to Numeric

6.1 Bytes

All numbers respond to these methods:

bytes
kilobytes
megabytes
gigabytes
terabytes
petabytes
exabytes

They return the corresponding amount of bytes, using a conversion factor of 1024:

2.kilobytes   # => 2048
3.megabytes   # => 3145728
3.5.gigabytes # => 3758096384
-4.exabytes   # => -4611686018427387904

Singular forms are aliased so you are able to say:

1.megabyte # => 1048576

6.2 Time

Enables the use of time calculations and declarations, like 45.minutes + 2.hours + 4.years.

These methods use Time#advance for precise date calculations when using from_now, ago, etc. as well as adding or subtracting their results from a Time object. For example:

# equivalent to Time.current.advance(months: 1)
1.month.from_now

# equivalent to Time.current.advance(years: 2)
2.years.from_now

# equivalent to Time.current.advance(months: 4, years: 5)
(4.months + 5.years).from_now

While these methods provide precise calculation when used as in the examples above, care should be taken to note that this is not true if the result of months',years', etc is converted before use:

# equivalent to 30.days.to_i.from_now
1.month.to_i.from_now

# equivalent to 365.25.days.to_f.from_now
1.year.to_f.from_now

In such cases, Ruby's core Date and Time should be used for precision date and time arithmetic.

6.3 Formatting

Enables the formatting of numbers in a variety of ways.

Produce a string representation of a number as a telephone number:

5551234.to_s(:phone)
# => 555-1234
1235551234.to_s(:phone)
# => 123-555-1234
1235551234.to_s(:phone, area_code: true)
# => (123) 555-1234
1235551234.to_s(:phone, delimiter: " ")
# => 123 555 1234
1235551234.to_s(:phone, area_code: true, extension: 555)
# => (123) 555-1234 x 555
1235551234.to_s(:phone, country_code: 1)
# => +1-123-555-1234

Produce a string representation of a number as currency:

1234567890.50.to_s(:currency)                 # => $1,234,567,890.50
1234567890.506.to_s(:currency)                # => $1,234,567,890.51
1234567890.506.to_s(:currency, precision: 3)  # => $1,234,567,890.506

Produce a string representation of a number as a percentage:

100.to_s(:percentage)
# => 100.000%
100.to_s(:percentage, precision: 0)
# => 100%
1000.to_s(:percentage, delimiter: '.', separator: ',')
# => 1.000,000%
302.24398923423.to_s(:percentage, precision: 5)
# => 302.24399%

Produce a string representation of a number in delimited form:

12345678.to_s(:delimited)                     # => 12,345,678
12345678.05.to_s(:delimited)                  # => 12,345,678.05
12345678.to_s(:delimited, delimiter: ".")     # => 12.345.678
12345678.to_s(:delimited, delimiter: ",")     # => 12,345,678
12345678.05.to_s(:delimited, separator: " ")  # => 12,345,678 05

Produce a string representation of a number rounded to a precision:

111.2345.to_s(:rounded)                     # => 111.235
111.2345.to_s(:rounded, precision: 2)       # => 111.23
13.to_s(:rounded, precision: 5)             # => 13.00000
389.32314.to_s(:rounded, precision: 0)      # => 389
111.2345.to_s(:rounded, significant: true)  # => 111

Produce a string representation of a number as a human-readable number of bytes:

123.to_s(:human_size)            # => 123 Bytes
1234.to_s(:human_size)           # => 1.21 KB
12345.to_s(:human_size)          # => 12.1 KB
1234567.to_s(:human_size)        # => 1.18 MB
1234567890.to_s(:human_size)     # => 1.15 GB
1234567890123.to_s(:human_size)  # => 1.12 TB

Produce a string representation of a number in human-readable words:

123.to_s(:human)               # => "123"
1234.to_s(:human)              # => "1.23 Thousand"
12345.to_s(:human)             # => "12.3 Thousand"
1234567.to_s(:human)           # => "1.23 Million"
1234567890.to_s(:human)        # => "1.23 Billion"
1234567890123.to_s(:human)     # => "1.23 Trillion"
1234567890123456.to_s(:human)  # => "1.23 Quadrillion"

7 Extensions to Integer

7.1 multiple_of?

The method multiple_of? tests whether an integer is multiple of the argument:

2.multiple_of?(1) # => true
1.multiple_of?(2) # => false

7.2 ordinal

The method ordinal returns the ordinal suffix string corresponding to the receiver integer:

1.ordinal    # => "st"
2.ordinal    # => "nd"
53.ordinal   # => "rd"
2009.ordinal # => "th"
-21.ordinal  # => "st"
-134.ordinal # => "th"

7.3 ordinalize

The method ordinalize returns the ordinal string corresponding to the receiver integer. In comparison, note that the ordinal method returns only the suffix string.

1.ordinalize    # => "1st"
2.ordinalize    # => "2nd"
53.ordinalize   # => "53rd"
2009.ordinalize # => "2009th"
-21.ordinalize  # => "-21st"
-134.ordinalize # => "-134th"

8 Extensions to BigDecimal

8.1 to_s

The method to_s is aliased to to_formatted_s. This provides a convenient way to display a BigDecimal value in floating-point notation:

BigDecimal.new(5.00, 6).to_s  # => "5.0"

8.2 to_formatted_s

Te method to_formatted_s provides a default specifier of "F". This means that a simple call to to_formatted_s or to_s will result in floating point representation instead of engineering notation:

BigDecimal.new(5.00, 6).to_formatted_s  # => "5.0"

and that symbol specifiers are also supported:

BigDecimal.new(5.00, 6).to_formatted_s(:db)  # => "5.0"

Engineering notation is still supported:

BigDecimal.new(5.00, 6).to_formatted_s("e")  # => "0.5E1"

9 Extensions to Enumerable

9.1 sum

The method sum adds the elements of an enumerable:

[1, 2, 3].sum # => 6
(1..100).sum  # => 5050

Addition only assumes the elements respond to +:

[[1, 2], [2, 3], [3, 4]].sum    # => [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4]
%w(foo bar baz).sum             # => "foobarbaz"
{a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}.sum # => [:b, 2, :c, 3, :a, 1]

The sum of an empty collection is zero by default, but this is customizable:

[].sum    # => 0
[].sum(1) # => 1

If a block is given, sum becomes an iterator that yields the elements of the collection and sums the returned values:

(1..5).sum {|n| n * 2 } # => 30
[2, 4, 6, 8, 10].sum    # => 30

The sum of an empty receiver can be customized in this form as well:

[].sum(1) {|n| n**3} # => 1

9.2 index_by

The method index_by generates a hash with the elements of an enumerable indexed by some key.

It iterates through the collection and passes each element to a block. The element will be keyed by the value returned by the block:

invoices.index_by(&:number)
# => {'2009-032' => <Invoice ...>, '2009-008' => <Invoice ...>, ...}

9.3 many?

The method many? is shorthand for collection.size > 1:

<% if pages.many? %>
  <%= pagination_links %>
<% end %>

If an optional block is given, many? only takes into account those elements that return true:

@see_more = videos.many? {|video| video.category == params[:category]}

9.4 exclude?

The predicate exclude? tests whether a given object does not belong to the collection. It is the negation of the built-in include?:

to_visit << node if visited.exclude?(node)

10 Extensions to Array

10.1 Accessing

Active Support augments the API of arrays to ease certain ways of accessing them. For example, to returns the subarray of elements up to the one at the passed index:

%w(a b c d).to(2) # => %w(a b c)
[].to(7)          # => []

Similarly, from returns the tail from the element at the passed index to the end. If the index is greater than the length of the array, it returns an empty array.

%w(a b c d).from(2)  # => %w(c d)
%w(a b c d).from(10) # => []
[].from(0)           # => []

The methods second, third, fourth, and fifth return the corresponding element (first is built-in). Thanks to social wisdom and positive constructiveness all around, forty_two is also available.

%w(a b c d).third # => c
%w(a b c d).fifth # => nil

10.2 Adding Elements

10.2.1 prepend

This method is an alias of Array#unshift.

%w(a b c d).prepend('e')  # => %w(e a b c d)
[].prepend(10)            # => [10]

10.2.2 append

This method is an alias of Array#<<.

%w(a b c d).append('e')  # => %w(a b c d e)
[].append([1,2])         # => [[1,2]]

10.3 Options Extraction

When the last argument in a method call is a hash, except perhaps for a &block argument, Ruby allows you to omit the brackets:

User.exists?(email: params[:email])

That syntactic sugar is used a lot in Rails to avoid positional arguments where there would be too many, offering instead interfaces that emulate named parameters. In particular it is very idiomatic to use a trailing hash for options.

If a method expects a variable number of arguments and uses * in its declaration, however, such an options hash ends up being an item of the array of arguments, where it loses its role.

In those cases, you may give an options hash a distinguished treatment with extract_options!. This method checks the type of the last item of an array. If it is a hash it pops it and returns it, otherwise it returns an empty hash.

Let's see for example the definition of the caches_action controller macro:

def caches_action(*actions)
  return unless cache_configured?
  options = actions.extract_options!
  ...
end

This method receives an arbitrary number of action names, and an optional hash of options as last argument. With the call to extract_options! you obtain the options hash and remove it from actions in a simple and explicit way.

10.4 Conversions

10.4.1 to_sentence

The method to_sentence turns an array into a string containing a sentence that enumerates its items:

%w().to_sentence                # => ""
%w(Earth).to_sentence           # => "Earth"
%w(Earth Wind).to_sentence      # => "Earth and Wind"
%w(Earth Wind Fire).to_sentence # => "Earth, Wind, and Fire"

This method accepts three options:

• :two_words_connector: What is used for arrays of length 2. Default is " and ".
• :words_connector: What is used to join the elements of arrays with 3 or more elements, except for the last two. Default is ", ".
• :last_word_connector: What is used to join the last items of an array with 3 or more elements. Default is ", and ".

The defaults for these options can be localized, their keys are:

10.4.2 to_formatted_s

The method to_formatted_s acts like to_s by default.

If the array contains items that respond to id, however, the symbol :db may be passed as argument. That's typically used with collections of Active Record objects. Returned strings are:

[].to_formatted_s(:db)            # => "null"
[user].to_formatted_s(:db)        # => "8456"
invoice.lines.to_formatted_s(:db) # => "23,567,556,12"

Integers in the example above are supposed to come from the respective calls to id.

10.4.3 to_xml

The method to_xml returns a string containing an XML representation of its receiver:

Contributor.limit(2).order(:rank).to_xml
# =>
# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
# <contributors type="array">
#   <contributor>
#     <id type="integer">4356</id>
#     <name>Jeremy Kemper</name>
#     <rank type="integer">1</rank>
#     <url-id>jeremy-kemper</url-id>
#   </contributor>
#   <contributor>
#     <id type="integer">4404</id>
#     <name>David Heinemeier Hansson</name>
#     <rank type="integer">2</rank>
#     <url-id>david-heinemeier-hansson</url-id>
#   </contributor>
# </contributors>

To do so it sends to_xml to every item in turn, and collects the results under a root node. All items must respond to to_xml, an exception is raised otherwise.

By default, the name of the root element is the underscorized and dasherized plural of the name of the class of the first item, provided the rest of elements belong to that type (checked with is_a?) and they are not hashes. In the example above that's "contributors".

If there's any element that does not belong to the type of the first one the root node becomes "objects":

[Contributor.first, Commit.first].to_xml
# =>
# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
# <objects type="array">
#   <object>
#     <id type="integer">4583</id>
#     <name>Aaron Batalion</name>
#     <rank type="integer">53</rank>
#     <url-id>aaron-batalion</url-id>
#   </object>
#   <object>
#     <author>Joshua Peek</author>
#     <authored-timestamp type="datetime">2009-09-02T16:44:36Z</authored-timestamp>
#     <branch>origin/master</branch>
#     <committed-timestamp type="datetime">2009-09-02T16:44:36Z</committed-timestamp>
#     <committer>Joshua Peek</committer>
#     <git-show nil="true"></git-show>
#     <id type="integer">190316</id>
#     <imported-from-svn type="boolean">false</imported-from-svn>
#     <message>Kill AMo observing wrap_with_notifications since ARes was only using it</message>
#     <sha1>723a47bfb3708f968821bc969a9a3fc873a3ed58</sha1>
#   </object>
# </objects>

If the receiver is an array of hashes the root element is by default also "objects":

[{a: 1, b: 2}, {c: 3}].to_xml
# =>
# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
# <objects type="array">
#   <object>
#     <b type="integer">2</b>
#     <a type="integer">1</a>
#   </object>
#   <object>
#     <c type="integer">3</c>
#   </object>
# </objects>

The name of children nodes is by default the name of the root node singularized. In the examples above we've seen "contributor" and "object". The option :children allows you to set these node names.

The default XML builder is a fresh instance of Builder::XmlMarkup. You can configure your own builder via the :builder option. The method also accepts options like :dasherize and friends, they are forwarded to the builder:

Contributor.limit(2).order(:rank).to_xml(skip_types: true)
# =>
# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
# <contributors>
#   <contributor>
#     <id>4356</id>
#     <name>Jeremy Kemper</name>
#     <rank>1</rank>
#     <url-id>jeremy-kemper</url-id>
#   </contributor>
#   <contributor>
#     <id>4404</id>
#     <name>David Heinemeier Hansson</name>
#     <rank>2</rank>
#     <url-id>david-heinemeier-hansson</url-id>
#   </contributor>
# </contributors>

10.5 Wrapping

The method Array.wrap wraps its argument in an array unless it is already an array (or array-like).

Specifically:

• If the argument is nil an empty list is returned.
• Otherwise, if the argument responds to to_ary it is invoked, and if the value of to_ary is not nil, it is returned.
• Otherwise, an array with the argument as its single element is returned.

Array.wrap(nil)       # => []
Array.wrap([1, 2, 3]) # => [1, 2, 3]
Array.wrap(0)         # => [0]

This method is similar in purpose to Kernel#Array, but there are some differences:

• If the argument responds to to_ary the method is invoked. Kernel#Array moves on to try to_a if the returned value is nil, but Array.wrap returns nil right away.
• If the returned value from to_ary is neither nil nor an Array object, Kernel#Array raises an exception, while Array.wrap does not, it just returns the value.
• It does not call to_a on the argument, though special-cases nil to return an empty array.

The last point is particularly worth comparing for some enumerables:

Array.wrap(foo: :bar) # => [{:foo=>:bar}]
Array(foo: :bar)      # => [[:foo, :bar]]

There's also a related idiom that uses the splat operator:

[*object]

which in Ruby 1.8 returns [nil] for nil, and calls to Array(object) otherwise. (Please if you know the exact behavior in 1.9 contact fxn.)

Thus, in this case the behavior is different for nil, and the differences with Kernel#Array explained above apply to the rest of objects.

10.6 Duplicating

The method Array.deep_dup duplicates itself and all objects inside recursively with Active Support method Object#deep_dup. It works like Array#map with sending deep_dup method to each object inside.

array = [1, [2, 3]]
dup = array.deep_dup
dup[1][2] = 4
array[1][2] == nil   # => true

10.7 Grouping

10.7.1 in_groups_of(number, fill_with = nil)

The method in_groups_of splits an array into consecutive groups of a certain size. It returns an array with the groups:

[1, 2, 3].in_groups_of(2) # => [[1, 2], [3, nil]]

or yields them in turn if a block is passed:

<% sample.in_groups_of(3) do |a, b, c| %>
  <tr>
    <td><%= a %></td>
    <td><%= b %></td>
    <td><%= c %></td>
  </tr>
<% end %>

The first example shows in_groups_of fills the last group with as many nil elements as needed to have the requested size. You can change this padding value using the second optional argument:

[1, 2, 3].in_groups_of(2, 0) # => [[1, 2], [3, 0]]

And you can tell the method not to fill the last group passing false:

[1, 2, 3].in_groups_of(2, false) # => [[1, 2], [3]]

As a consequence false can't be a used as a padding value.

10.7.2 in_groups(number, fill_with = nil)

The method in_groups splits an array into a certain number of groups. The method returns an array with the groups:

%w(1 2 3 4 5 6 7).in_groups(3)
# => [["1", "2", "3"], ["4", "5", nil], ["6", "7", nil]]

or yields them in turn if a block is passed:

%w(1 2 3 4 5 6 7).in_groups(3) {|group| p group}
["1", "2", "3"]
["4", "5", nil]
["6", "7", nil]

The examples above show that in_groups fills some groups with a trailing nil element as needed. A group can get at most one of these extra elements, the rightmost one if any. And the groups that have them are always the last ones.

You can change this padding value using the second optional argument:

%w(1 2 3 4 5 6 7).in_groups(3, "0")
# => [["1", "2", "3"], ["4", "5", "0"], ["6", "7", "0"]]

And you can tell the method not to fill the smaller groups passing false:

%w(1 2 3 4 5 6 7).in_groups(3, false)
# => [["1", "2", "3"], ["4", "5"], ["6", "7"]]

As a consequence false can't be a used as a padding value.

10.7.3 split(value = nil)

The method split divides an array by a separator and returns the resulting chunks.

If a block is passed the separators are those elements of the array for which the block returns true:

(-5..5).to_a.split { |i| i.multiple_of?(4) }
# => [[-5], [-3, -2, -1], [1, 2, 3], [5]]

Otherwise, the value received as argument, which defaults to nil, is the separator:

[0, 1, -5, 1, 1, "foo", "bar"].split(1)
# => [[0], [-5], [], ["foo", "bar"]]

11 Extensions to Hash

11.1 Conversions

11.1.1 to_xml

The method to_xml returns a string containing an XML representation of its receiver:

{"foo" => 1, "bar" => 2}.to_xml
# =>
# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
# <hash>
#   <foo type="integer">1</foo>
#   <bar type="integer">2</bar>
# </hash>

To do so, the method loops over the pairs and builds nodes that depend on the values. Given a pair key, value:

• If value is a hash there's a recursive call with key as :root.

• If value is an array there's a recursive call with key as :root, and key singularized as :children.

• If value is a callable object it must expect one or two arguments. Depending on the arity, the callable is invoked with the options hash as first argument with key as :root, and key singularized as second argument. Its return value becomes a new node.

• If value responds to to_xml the method is invoked with key as :root.

• Otherwise, a node with key as tag is created with a string representation of value as text node. If value is nil an attribute "nil" set to "true" is added. Unless the option :skip_types exists and is true, an attribute "type" is added as well according to the following mapping:

XML_TYPE_NAMES = {
  "Symbol"     => "symbol",
  "Fixnum"     => "integer",
  "Bignum"     => "integer",
  "BigDecimal" => "decimal",
  "Float"      => "float",
  "TrueClass"  => "boolean",
  "FalseClass" => "boolean",
  "Date"       => "date",
  "DateTime"   => "datetime",
  "Time"       => "datetime"
}

By default the root node is "hash", but that's configurable via the :root option.

The default XML builder is a fresh instance of Builder::XmlMarkup. You can configure your own builder with the :builder option. The method also accepts options like :dasherize and friends, they are forwarded to the builder.

11.2 Merging

Ruby has a built-in method Hash#merge that merges two hashes:

{a: 1, b: 1}.merge(a: 0, c: 2)
# => {:a=>0, :b=>1, :c=>2}

Active Support defines a few more ways of merging hashes that may be convenient.

11.2.1 reverse_merge and reverse_merge!

In case of collision the key in the hash of the argument wins in merge. You can support option hashes with default values in a compact way with this idiom:

options = {length: 30, omission: "..."}.merge(options)

Active Support defines reverse_merge in case you prefer this alternative notation:

options = options.reverse_merge(length: 30, omission: "...")

And a bang version reverse_merge! that performs the merge in place:

options.reverse_merge!(length: 30, omission: "...")

11.2.2 reverse_update

The method reverse_update is an alias for reverse_merge!, explained above.

11.2.3 deep_merge and deep_merge!

As you can see in the previous example if a key is found in both hashes the value in the one in the argument wins.

Active Support defines Hash#deep_merge. In a deep merge, if a key is found in both hashes and their values are hashes in turn, then their merge becomes the value in the resulting hash:

{a: {b: 1}}.deep_merge(a: {c: 2})
# => {:a=>{:b=>1, :c=>2}}

The method deep_merge! performs a deep merge in place.

11.3 Deep duplicating

The method Hash.deep_dup duplicates itself and all keys and values inside recursively with Active Support method Object#deep_dup. It works like Enumerator#each_with_object with sending deep_dup method to each pair inside.

hash = { a: 1, b: { c: 2, d: [3, 4] } }

dup = hash.deep_dup
dup[:b][:e] = 5
dup[:b][:d] << 5

hash[:b][:e] == nil      # => true
hash[:b][:d] == [3, 4]   # => true

11.4 Working with Keys

11.4.1 except and except!

The method except returns a hash with the keys in the argument list removed, if present:

{a: 1, b: 2}.except(:a) # => {:b=>2}

If the receiver responds to convert_key, the method is called on each of the arguments. This allows except to play nice with hashes with indifferent access for instance:

{a: 1}.with_indifferent_access.except(:a)  # => {}
{a: 1}.with_indifferent_access.except("a") # => {}

There's also the bang variant except! that removes keys in the very receiver.

11.4.2 transform_keys and transform_keys!

The method transform_keys accepts a block and returns a hash that has applied the block operations to each of the keys in the receiver:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, a: :a}.transform_keys { |key| key.to_s.upcase }
# => {"" => nil, "A" => :a, "1" => 1}

In case of key collision, one of the values will be chosen. The chosen value may not always be the same given the same hash:

{"a" => 1, a: 2}.transform_keys { |key| key.to_s.upcase }
# The result could either be
# => {"A"=>2}
# or
# => {"A"=>1}

This method may be useful for example to build specialized conversions. For instance stringify_keys and symbolize_keys use transform_keys to perform their key conversions:

def stringify_keys
  transform_keys { |key| key.to_s }
end
...
def symbolize_keys
  transform_keys { |key| key.to_sym rescue key }
end

There's also the bang variant transform_keys! that applies the block operations to keys in the very receiver.

Besides that, one can use deep_transform_keys and deep_transform_keys! to perform the block operation on all the keys in the given hash and all the hashes nested into it. An example of the result is:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, nested: {a: 3, 5 => 5}}.deep_transform_keys { |key| key.to_s.upcase }
# => {""=>nil, "1"=>1, "NESTED"=>{"A"=>3, "5"=>5}}

11.4.3 stringify_keys and stringify_keys!

The method stringify_keys returns a hash that has a stringified version of the keys in the receiver. It does so by sending to_s to them:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, a: :a}.stringify_keys
# => {"" => nil, "a" => :a, "1" => 1}

In case of key collision, one of the values will be chosen. The chosen value may not always be the same given the same hash:

{"a" => 1, a: 2}.stringify_keys
# The result could either be
# => {"a"=>2}
# or
# => {"a"=>1}

This method may be useful for example to easily accept both symbols and strings as options. For instance ActionView::Helpers::FormHelper defines:

def to_check_box_tag(options = {}, checked_value = "1", unchecked_value = "0")
  options = options.stringify_keys
  options["type"] = "checkbox"
  ...
end

The second line can safely access the "type" key, and let the user to pass either :type or "type".

There's also the bang variant stringify_keys! that stringifies keys in the very receiver.

Besides that, one can use deep_stringify_keys and deep_stringify_keys! to stringify all the keys in the given hash and all the hashes nested into it. An example of the result is:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, nested: {a: 3, 5 => 5}}.deep_stringify_keys
# => {""=>nil, "1"=>1, "nested"=>{"a"=>3, "5"=>5}}

11.4.4 symbolize_keys and symbolize_keys!

The method symbolize_keys returns a hash that has a symbolized version of the keys in the receiver, where possible. It does so by sending to_sym to them:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, "a" => "a"}.symbolize_keys
# => {1=>1, nil=>nil, :a=>"a"}

In case of key collision, one of the values will be chosen. The chosen value may not always be the same given the same hash:

{"a" => 1, a: 2}.symbolize_keys
# The result could either be
# => {:a=>2}
# or
# => {:a=>1}

This method may be useful for example to easily accept both symbols and strings as options. For instance ActionController::UrlRewriter defines

def rewrite_path(options)
  options = options.symbolize_keys
  options.update(options[:params].symbolize_keys) if options[:params]
  ...
end

The second line can safely access the :params key, and let the user to pass either :params or "params".

There's also the bang variant symbolize_keys! that symbolizes keys in the very receiver.

Besides that, one can use deep_symbolize_keys and deep_symbolize_keys! to symbolize all the keys in the given hash and all the hashes nested into it. An example of the result is:

{nil => nil, 1 => 1, "nested" => {"a" => 3, 5 => 5}}.deep_symbolize_keys
# => {nil=>nil, 1=>1, nested:{a:3, 5=>5}}

11.4.5 to_options and to_options!

The methods to_options and to_options! are respectively aliases of symbolize_keys and symbolize_keys!.

11.4.6 assert_valid_keys

The method assert_valid_keys receives an arbitrary number of arguments, and checks whether the receiver has any key outside that white list. If it does ArgumentError is raised.

{a: 1}.assert_valid_keys(:a)  # passes
{a: 1}.assert_valid_keys("a") # ArgumentError

Active Record does not accept unknown options when building associations, for example. It implements that control via assert_valid_keys.

11.5 Slicing

Ruby has built-in support for taking slices out of strings and arrays. Active Support extends slicing to hashes:

{a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}.slice(:a, :c)
# => {:c=>3, :a=>1}

{a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}.slice(:b, :X)
# => {:b=>2} # non-existing keys are ignored

If the receiver responds to convert_key keys are normalized:

{a: 1, b: 2}.with_indifferent_access.slice("a")
# => {:a=>1}

There's also slice! which in addition to perform a slice in place returns what's removed:

hash = {a: 1, b: 2}
rest = hash.slice!(:a) # => {:b=>2}
hash                   # => {:a=>1}

11.6 Extracting

The method extract! removes and returns the key/value pairs matching the given keys.

hash = {a: 1, b: 2}
rest = hash.extract!(:a) # => {:a=>1}
hash                     # => {:b=>2}

The method extract! returns the same subclass of Hash, that the receiver is.

hash = {a: 1, b: 2}.with_indifferent_access
rest = hash.extract!(:a).class
# => ActiveSupport::HashWithIndifferentAccess

11.7 Indifferent Access

The method with_indifferent_access returns an ActiveSupport::HashWithIndifferentAccess out of its receiver:

{a: 1}.with_indifferent_access["a"] # => 1

11.8 Compacting

The methods compact and compact! return a Hash without items with nil value.

{a: 1, b: 2, c: nil}.compact # => {a: 1, b: 2}

12 Extensions to Regexp

12.1 multiline?

The method multiline? says whether a regexp has the /m flag set, that is, whether the dot matches newlines.

%r{.}.multiline?  # => false
%r{.}m.multiline? # => true

Regexp.new('.').multiline?                    # => false
Regexp.new('.', Regexp::MULTILINE).multiline? # => true

Rails uses this method in a single place, also in the routing code. Multiline regexps are disallowed for route requirements and this flag eases enforcing that constraint.

def assign_route_options(segments, defaults, requirements)
  ...
  if requirement.multiline?
    raise ArgumentError, "Regexp multiline option not allowed in routing requirements: #{requirement.inspect}"
  end
  ...
end

13 Extensions to Range

13.1 to_s

Active Support extends the method Range#to_s so that it understands an optional format argument. As of this writing the only supported non-default format is :db:

(Date.today..Date.tomorrow).to_s
# => "2009-10-25..2009-10-26"

(Date.today..Date.tomorrow).to_s(:db)
# => "BETWEEN '2009-10-25' AND '2009-10-26'"

As the example depicts, the :db format generates a BETWEEN SQL clause. That is used by Active Record in its support for range values in conditions.

13.2 include?

The methods Range#include? and Range#=== say whether some value falls between the ends of a given instance:

(2..3).include?(Math::E) # => true

Active Support extends these methods so that the argument may be another range in turn. In that case we test whether the ends of the argument range belong to the receiver themselves:

(1..10).include?(3..7)  # => true
(1..10).include?(0..7)  # => false
(1..10).include?(3..11) # => false
(1...9).include?(3..9)  # => false

(1..10) === (3..7)  # => true
(1..10) === (0..7)  # => false
(1..10) === (3..11) # => false
(1...9) === (3..9)  # => false

13.3 overlaps?

The method Range#overlaps? says whether any two given ranges have non-void intersection:

(1..10).overlaps?(7..11)  # => true
(1..10).overlaps?(0..7)   # => true
(1..10).overlaps?(11..27) # => false

14 Extensions to Proc

14.1 bind

As you surely know Ruby has an UnboundMethod class whose instances are methods that belong to the limbo of methods without a self. The method Module#instance_method returns an unbound method for example:

Hash.instance_method(:delete) # => #<UnboundMethod: Hash#delete>

An unbound method is not callable as is, you need to bind it first to an object with bind:

clear = Hash.instance_method(:clear)
clear.bind({a: 1}).call # => {}

Active Support defines Proc#bind with an analogous purpose:

Proc.new { size }.bind([]).call # => 0

As you see that's callable and bound to the argument, the return value is indeed a Method.

Action Pack uses this trick in rescue_from for example, which accepts the name of a method and also a proc as callbacks for a given rescued exception. It has to call them in either case, so a bound method is returned by handler_for_rescue, thus simplifying the code in the caller:

def handler_for_rescue(exception)
  _, rescuer = Array(rescue_handlers).reverse.detect do |klass_name, handler|
    ...
  end

  case rescuer
  when Symbol
    method(rescuer)
  when Proc
    rescuer.bind(self)
  end
end

15 Extensions to Date

15.1 Calculations

15.1.1 Date.current

Active Support defines Date.current to be today in the current time zone. That's like Date.today, except that it honors the user time zone, if defined. It also defines Date.yesterday and Date.tomorrow, and the instance predicates past?, today?, and future?, all of them relative to Date.current.

When making Date comparisons using methods which honor the user time zone, make sure to use Date.current and not Date.today. There are cases where the user time zone might be in the future compared to the system time zone, which Date.today uses by default. This means Date.today may equal Date.yesterday.

15.1.2 Named dates

15.1.2.1 prev_year, next_year

In Ruby 1.9 prev_year and next_year return a date with the same day/month in the last or next year:

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 8) # => Sat, 08 May 2010
d.prev_year              # => Fri, 08 May 2009
d.next_year              # => Sun, 08 May 2011

If date is the 29th of February of a leap year, you obtain the 28th:

d = Date.new(2000, 2, 29) # => Tue, 29 Feb 2000
d.prev_year               # => Sun, 28 Feb 1999
d.next_year               # => Wed, 28 Feb 2001

prev_year is aliased to last_year.

15.1.2.2 prev_month, next_month

In Ruby 1.9 prev_month and next_month return the date with the same day in the last or next month:

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 8) # => Sat, 08 May 2010
d.prev_month             # => Thu, 08 Apr 2010
d.next_month             # => Tue, 08 Jun 2010

If such a day does not exist, the last day of the corresponding month is returned:

Date.new(2000, 5, 31).prev_month # => Sun, 30 Apr 2000
Date.new(2000, 3, 31).prev_month # => Tue, 29 Feb 2000
Date.new(2000, 5, 31).next_month # => Fri, 30 Jun 2000
Date.new(2000, 1, 31).next_month # => Tue, 29 Feb 2000

prev_month is aliased to last_month.

15.1.2.3 prev_quarter, next_quarter

Same as prev_month and next_month. It returns the date with the same day in the previous or next quarter:

t = Time.local(2010, 5, 8) # => Sat, 08 May 2010
t.prev_quarter             # => Mon, 08 Feb 2010
t.next_quarter             # => Sun, 08 Aug 2010

If such a day does not exist, the last day of the corresponding month is returned:

Time.local(2000, 7, 31).prev_quarter  # => Sun, 30 Apr 2000
Time.local(2000, 5, 31).prev_quarter  # => Tue, 29 Feb 2000
Time.local(2000, 10, 31).prev_quarter # => Mon, 30 Oct 2000
Time.local(2000, 11, 31).next_quarter # => Wed, 28 Feb 2001

prev_quarter is aliased to last_quarter.

15.1.2.4 beginning_of_week, end_of_week

The methods beginning_of_week and end_of_week return the dates for the beginning and end of the week, respectively. Weeks are assumed to start on Monday, but that can be changed passing an argument, setting thread local Date.beginning_of_week or config.beginning_of_week.

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 8)     # => Sat, 08 May 2010
d.beginning_of_week          # => Mon, 03 May 2010
d.beginning_of_week(:sunday) # => Sun, 02 May 2010
d.end_of_week                # => Sun, 09 May 2010
d.end_of_week(:sunday)       # => Sat, 08 May 2010

beginning_of_week is aliased to at_beginning_of_week and end_of_week is aliased to at_end_of_week.

15.1.2.5 monday, sunday

The methods monday and sunday return the dates for the previous Monday and next Sunday, respectively.

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 8)     # => Sat, 08 May 2010
d.monday                     # => Mon, 03 May 2010
d.sunday                     # => Sun, 09 May 2010

d = Date.new(2012, 9, 10)    # => Mon, 10 Sep 2012
d.monday                     # => Mon, 10 Sep 2012

d = Date.new(2012, 9, 16)    # => Sun, 16 Sep 2012
d.sunday                     # => Sun, 16 Sep 2012

15.1.2.6 prev_week, next_week

The method next_week receives a symbol with a day name in English (default is the thread local Date.beginning_of_week, or config.beginning_of_week, or :monday) and it returns the date corresponding to that day.

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 9) # => Sun, 09 May 2010
d.next_week              # => Mon, 10 May 2010
d.next_week(:saturday)   # => Sat, 15 May 2010

The method prev_week is analogous:

d.prev_week              # => Mon, 26 Apr 2010
d.prev_week(:saturday)   # => Sat, 01 May 2010
d.prev_week(:friday)     # => Fri, 30 Apr 2010

prev_week is aliased to last_week.

Both next_week and prev_week work as expected when Date.beginning_of_week or config.beginning_of_week are set.

15.1.2.7 beginning_of_month, end_of_month

The methods beginning_of_month and end_of_month return the dates for the beginning and end of the month:

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 9) # => Sun, 09 May 2010
d.beginning_of_month     # => Sat, 01 May 2010
d.end_of_month           # => Mon, 31 May 2010

beginning_of_month is aliased to at_beginning_of_month, and end_of_month is aliased to at_end_of_month.

15.1.2.8 beginning_of_quarter, end_of_quarter

The methods beginning_of_quarter and end_of_quarter return the dates for the beginning and end of the quarter of the receiver's calendar year:

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 9) # => Sun, 09 May 2010
d.beginning_of_quarter   # => Thu, 01 Apr 2010
d.end_of_quarter         # => Wed, 30 Jun 2010

beginning_of_quarter is aliased to at_beginning_of_quarter, and end_of_quarter is aliased to at_end_of_quarter.

15.1.2.9 beginning_of_year, end_of_year

The methods beginning_of_year and end_of_year return the dates for the beginning and end of the year:

d = Date.new(2010, 5, 9) # => Sun, 09 May 2010
d.beginning_of_year      # => Fri, 01 Jan 2010
d.end_of_year            # => Fri, 31 Dec 2010

beginning_of_year is aliased to at_beginning_of_year, and end_of_year is aliased to at_end_of_year.

15.1.3 Other Date Computations

15.1.3.1 years_ago, years_since

The method years_ago receives a number of years and returns the same date those many years ago:

date = Date.new(2010, 6, 7)
date.years_ago(10) # => Wed, 07 Jun 2000

years_since moves forward in time:

date = Date.new(2010, 6, 7)
date.years_since(10) # => Sun, 07 Jun 2020

If such a day does not exist, the last day of the corresponding month is returned:

Date.new(2012, 2, 29).years_ago(3)     # => Sat, 28 Feb 2009
Date.new(2012, 2, 29).years_since(3)   # => Sat, 28 Feb 2015

15.1.3.2 months_ago, months_since

The methods months_ago and months_since work analogously for months:

Date.new(2010, 4, 30).months_ago(2)   # => Sun, 28 Feb 2010
Date.new(2010, 4, 30).months_since(2) # => Wed, 30 Jun 2010

If such a day does not exist, the last day of the corresponding month is returned:

Date.new(2010, 4, 30).months_ago(2)    # => Sun, 28 Feb 2010
Date.new(2009, 12, 31).months_since(2) # => Sun, 28 Feb 2010

15.1.3.3 weeks_ago

The method weeks_ago works analogously for weeks:

Date.new(2010, 5, 24).weeks_ago(1)    # => Mon, 17 May 2010
Date.new(2010, 5, 24).weeks_ago(2)    # => Mon, 10 May 2010

15.1.3.4 advance

The most generic way to jump to other days is advance. This method receives a hash with keys :years, :months, :weeks, :days, and returns a date advanced as much as the present keys indicate:

date = Date.new(2010, 6, 6)
date.advance(years: 1, weeks: 2)  # => Mon, 20 Jun 2011
date.advance(months: 2, days: -2) # => Wed, 04 Aug 2010

Note in the previous example that increments may be negative.

To perform the computation the method first increments years, then months, then weeks, and finally days. This order is important towards the end of months. Say for example we are at the end of February of 2010, and we want to move one month and one day forward.

The method advance advances first one month, and then one day, the result is:

Date.new(2010, 2, 28).advance(months: 1, days: 1)
# => Sun, 29 Mar 2010

While if it did it the other way around the result would be different:

Date.new(2010, 2, 28).advance(days: 1).advance(months: 1)
# => Thu, 01 Apr 2010

15.1.4 Changing Components

The method change allows you to get a new date which is the same as the receiver except for the given year, month, or day:

Date.new(2010, 12, 23).change(year: 2011, month: 11)
# => Wed, 23 Nov 2011

This method is not tolerant to non-existing dates, if the change is invalid ArgumentError is raised:

Date.new(2010, 1, 31).change(month: 2)
# => ArgumentError: invalid date

15.1.5 Durations

Durations can be added to and subtracted from dates:

d = Date.current
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010
d + 1.year
# => Tue, 09 Aug 2011
d - 3.hours
# => Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:00:00 UTC +00:00

They translate to calls to since or advance. For example here we get the correct jump in the calendar reform:

Date.new(1582, 10, 4) + 1.day
# => Fri, 15 Oct 1582

15.1.6 Timestamps

15.1.6.1 beginning_of_day, end_of_day

The method beginning_of_day returns a timestamp at the beginning of the day (00:00:00):

date = Date.new(2010, 6, 7)
date.beginning_of_day # => Mon Jun 07 00:00:00 +0200 2010

The method end_of_day returns a timestamp at the end of the day (23:59:59):

date = Date.new(2010, 6, 7)
date.end_of_day # => Mon Jun 07 23:59:59 +0200 2010

beginning_of_day is aliased to at_beginning_of_day, midnight, at_midnight.

15.1.6.2 beginning_of_hour, end_of_hour

The method beginning_of_hour returns a timestamp at the beginning of the hour (hh:00:00):

date = DateTime.new(2010, 6, 7, 19, 55, 25)
date.beginning_of_hour # => Mon Jun 07 19:00:00 +0200 2010

The method end_of_hour returns a timestamp at the end of the hour (hh:59:59):

date = DateTime.new(2010, 6, 7, 19, 55, 25)
date.end_of_hour # => Mon Jun 07 19:59:59 +0200 2010

beginning_of_hour is aliased to at_beginning_of_hour.

15.1.6.3 beginning_of_minute, end_of_minute

The method beginning_of_minute returns a timestamp at the beginning of the minute (hh:mm:00):

date = DateTime.new(2010, 6, 7, 19, 55, 25)
date.beginning_of_minute # => Mon Jun 07 19:55:00 +0200 2010

The method end_of_minute returns a timestamp at the end of the minute (hh:mm:59):

date = DateTime.new(2010, 6, 7, 19, 55, 25)
date.end_of_minute # => Mon Jun 07 19:55:59 +0200 2010

beginning_of_minute is aliased to at_beginning_of_minute.

15.1.6.4 ago, since

The method ago receives a number of seconds as argument and returns a timestamp those many seconds ago from midnight:

date = Date.current # => Fri, 11 Jun 2010
date.ago(1)         # => Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:59:59 EDT -04:00

Similarly, since moves forward:

date = Date.current # => Fri, 11 Jun 2010
date.since(1)       # => Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:01 EDT -04:00

15.1.7 Other Time Computations

15.2 Conversions

16 Extensions to DateTime

16.1 Calculations

The class DateTime is a subclass of Date so by loading active_support/core_ext/date/calculations.rb you inherit these methods and their aliases, except that they will always return datetimes:

yesterday
tomorrow
beginning_of_week (at_beginning_of_week)
end_of_week (at_end_of_week)
monday
sunday
weeks_ago
prev_week (last_week)
next_week
months_ago
months_since
beginning_of_month (at_beginning_of_month)
end_of_month (at_end_of_month)
prev_month (last_month)
next_month
beginning_of_quarter (at_beginning_of_quarter)
end_of_quarter (at_end_of_quarter)
beginning_of_year (at_beginning_of_year)
end_of_year (at_end_of_year)
years_ago
years_since
prev_year (last_year)
next_year

The following methods are reimplemented so you do not need to load active_support/core_ext/date/calculations.rb for these ones:

beginning_of_day (midnight, at_midnight, at_beginning_of_day)
end_of_day
ago
since (in)

On the other hand, advance and change are also defined and support more options, they are documented below.

The following methods are only implemented in active_support/core_ext/date_time/calculations.rb as they only make sense when used with a DateTime instance:

beginning_of_hour (at_beginning_of_hour)
end_of_hour

16.1.1 Named Datetimes

16.1.1.1 DateTime.current

Active Support defines DateTime.current to be like Time.now.to_datetime, except that it honors the user time zone, if defined. It also defines DateTime.yesterday and DateTime.tomorrow, and the instance predicates past?, and future? relative to DateTime.current.

16.1.2 Other Extensions

16.1.2.1 seconds_since_midnight

The method seconds_since_midnight returns the number of seconds since midnight:

now = DateTime.current     # => Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:26:36 +0000
now.seconds_since_midnight # => 73596

16.1.2.2 utc

The method utc gives you the same datetime in the receiver expressed in UTC.

now = DateTime.current # => Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:27:52 -0400
now.utc                # => Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:27:52 +0000

This method is also aliased as getutc.

16.1.2.3 utc?

The predicate utc? says whether the receiver has UTC as its time zone:

now = DateTime.now # => Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:30:47 -0400
now.utc?           # => false
now.utc.utc?       # => true

16.1.2.4 advance

The most generic way to jump to another datetime is advance. This method receives a hash with keys :years, :months, :weeks, :days, :hours, :minutes, and :seconds, and returns a datetime advanced as much as the present keys indicate.

d = DateTime.current
# => Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:33:31 +0000
d.advance(years: 1, months: 1, days: 1, hours: 1, minutes: 1, seconds: 1)
# => Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:34:32 +0000

This method first computes the destination date passing :years, :months, :weeks, and :days to Date#advance documented above. After that, it adjusts the time calling since with the number of seconds to advance. This order is relevant, a different ordering would give different datetimes in some edge-cases. The example in Date#advance applies, and we can extend it to show order relevance related to the time bits.

If we first move the date bits (that have also a relative order of processing, as documented before), and then the time bits we get for example the following computation:

d = DateTime.new(2010, 2, 28, 23, 59, 59)
# => Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:59:59 +0000
d.advance(months: 1, seconds: 1)
# => Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

but if we computed them the other way around, the result would be different:

d.advance(seconds: 1).advance(months: 1)
# => Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

16.1.3 Changing Components

The method change allows you to get a new datetime which is the same as the receiver except for the given options, which may include :year, :month, :day, :hour, :min, :sec, :offset, :start:

now = DateTime.current
# => Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:56:22 +0000
now.change(year: 2011, offset: Rational(-6, 24))
# => Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:56:22 -0600

If hours are zeroed, then minutes and seconds are too (unless they have given values):

now.change(hour: 0)
# => Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Similarly, if minutes are zeroed, then seconds are too (unless it has given a value):

now.change(min: 0)
# => Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:00:00 +0000

This method is not tolerant to non-existing dates, if the change is invalid ArgumentError is raised:

DateTime.current.change(month: 2, day: 30)
# => ArgumentError: invalid date

16.1.4 Durations

Durations can be added to and subtracted from datetimes:

now = DateTime.current
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:15:17 +0000
now + 1.year
# => Tue, 09 Aug 2011 23:15:17 +0000
now - 1.week
# => Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:15:17 +0000

They translate to calls to since or advance. For example here we get the correct jump in the calendar reform:

DateTime.new(1582, 10, 4, 23) + 1.hour
# => Fri, 15 Oct 1582 00:00:00 +0000

17 Extensions to Time

17.1 Calculations

Active Support adds to Time many of the methods available for DateTime:

past?
today?
future?
yesterday
tomorrow
seconds_since_midnight
change
advance
ago
since (in)
beginning_of_day (midnight, at_midnight, at_beginning_of_day)
end_of_day
beginning_of_hour (at_beginning_of_hour)
end_of_hour
beginning_of_week (at_beginning_of_week)
end_of_week (at_end_of_week)
monday
sunday
weeks_ago
prev_week (last_week)
next_week
months_ago
months_since
beginning_of_month (at_beginning_of_month)
end_of_month (at_end_of_month)
prev_month (last_month)
next_month
beginning_of_quarter (at_beginning_of_quarter)
end_of_quarter (at_end_of_quarter)
beginning_of_year (at_beginning_of_year)
end_of_year (at_end_of_year)
years_ago
years_since
prev_year (last_year)
next_year

They are analogous. Please refer to their documentation above and take into account the following differences:

• change accepts an additional :usec option.
• Time understands DST, so you get correct DST calculations as in

Time.zone_default
# => #<ActiveSupport::TimeZone:0x7f73654d4f38 @utc_offset=nil, @name="Madrid", ...>

# In Barcelona, 2010/03/28 02:00 +0100 becomes 2010/03/28 03:00 +0200 due to DST.
t = Time.local(2010, 3, 28, 1, 59, 59)
# => Sun Mar 28 01:59:59 +0100 2010
t.advance(seconds: 1)
# => Sun Mar 28 03:00:00 +0200 2010

• If since or ago jump to a time that can't be expressed with Time a DateTime object is returned instead.

17.1.1 Time.current

Active Support defines Time.current to be today in the current time zone. That's like Time.now, except that it honors the user time zone, if defined. It also defines the instance predicates past?, today?, and future?, all of them relative to Time.current.

When making Time comparisons using methods which honor the user time zone, make sure to use Time.current instead of Time.now. There are cases where the user time zone might be in the future compared to the system time zone, which Time.now uses by default. This means Time.now.to_date may equal Date.yesterday.

17.1.2 all_day, all_week, all_month, all_quarter and all_year

The method all_day returns a range representing the whole day of the current time.

now = Time.current
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:20:05 UTC +00:00
now.all_day
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:59:59 UTC +00:00

Analogously, all_week, all_month, all_quarter and all_year all serve the purpose of generating time ranges.

now = Time.current
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:20:05 UTC +00:00
now.all_week
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:59:59 UTC +00:00
now.all_week(:sunday)
# => Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:59:59 UTC +00:00
now.all_month
# => Sat, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:59:59 UTC +00:00
now.all_quarter
# => Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:59:59 UTC +00:00
now.all_year
# => Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00..Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:59:59 UTC +00:00

17.2 Time Constructors

Active Support defines Time.current to be Time.zone.now if there's a user time zone defined, with fallback to Time.now:

Time.zone_default
# => #<ActiveSupport::TimeZone:0x7f73654d4f38 @utc_offset=nil, @name="Madrid", ...>
Time.current
# => Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:11:58 CEST +02:00

Analogously to DateTime, the predicates past?, and future? are relative to Time.current.

If the time to be constructed lies beyond the range supported by Time in the runtime platform, usecs are discarded and a DateTime object is returned instead.

17.2.1 Durations

Durations can be added to and subtracted from time objects:

now = Time.current
# => Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:20:05 UTC +00:00
now + 1.year
#  => Tue, 09 Aug 2011 23:21:11 UTC +00:00
now - 1.week
# => Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:21:11 UTC +00:00

They translate to calls to since or advance. For example here we get the correct jump in the calendar reform:

Time.utc(1582, 10, 3) + 5.days
# => Mon Oct 18 00:00:00 UTC 1582

18 Extensions to File

18.1 atomic_write

With the class method File.atomic_write you can write to a file in a way that will prevent any reader from seeing half-written content.

The name of the file is passed as an argument, and the method yields a file handle opened for writing. Once the block is done atomic_write closes the file handle and completes its job.

For example, Action Pack uses this method to write asset cache files like all.css:

File.atomic_write(joined_asset_path) do |cache|
  cache.write(join_asset_file_contents(asset_paths))
end

To accomplish this atomic_write creates a temporary file. That's the file the code in the block actually writes to. On completion, the temporary file is renamed, which is an atomic operation on POSIX systems. If the target file exists atomic_write overwrites it and keeps owners and permissions. However there are a few cases where atomic_write cannot change the file ownership or permissions, this error is caught and skipped over trusting in the user/filesystem to ensure the file is accessible to the processes that need it.

The auxiliary file is written in a standard directory for temporary files, but you can pass a directory of your choice as second argument.

19 Extensions to Marshal

19.1 load

Active Support adds constant autoloading support to load.

For example, the file cache store deserializes this way:

File.open(file_name) { |f| Marshal.load(f) }

If the cached data refers to a constant that is unknown at that point, the autoloading mechanism is triggered and if it succeeds the deserialization is retried transparently.

20 Extensions to Logger

20.1 around_[level]

Takes two arguments, a before_message and after_message and calls the current level method on the Logger instance, passing in the before_message, then the specified message, then the after_message:

logger = Logger.new("log/development.log")
logger.around_info("before", "after") { |logger| logger.info("during") }

20.2 silence

Silences every log level lesser to the specified one for the duration of the given block. Log level orders are: debug, info, error and fatal.

logger = Logger.new("log/development.log")
logger.silence(Logger::INFO) do
  logger.debug("In space, no one can hear you scream.")
  logger.info("Scream all you want, small mailman!")
end

20.3 datetime_format=

Modifies the datetime format output by the formatter class associated with this logger. If the formatter class does not have a datetime_format method then this is ignored.

class Logger::FormatWithTime < Logger::Formatter
  cattr_accessor(:datetime_format) { "%Y%m%d%H%m%S" }

  def self.call(severity, timestamp, progname, msg)
    "#{timestamp.strftime(datetime_format)} -- #{String === msg ? msg : msg.inspect}\n"
  end
end

logger = Logger.new("log/development.log")
logger.formatter = Logger::FormatWithTime
logger.info("<- is the current time")

21 Extensions to NameError

Active Support adds missing_name? to NameError, which tests whether the exception was raised because of the name passed as argument.

The name may be given as a symbol or string. A symbol is tested against the bare constant name, a string is against the fully-qualified constant name.

For example, when an action of ArticlesController is called Rails tries optimistically to use ArticlesHelper. It is OK that the helper module does not exist, so if an exception for that constant name is raised it should be silenced. But it could be the case that articles_helper.rb raises a NameError due to an actual unknown constant. That should be reraised. The method missing_name? provides a way to distinguish both cases:

def default_helper_module!
  module_name = name.sub(/Controller$/, '')
  module_path = module_name.underscore
  helper module_path
rescue MissingSourceFile => e
  raise e unless e.is_missing? "helpers/#{module_path}_helper"
rescue NameError => e
  raise e unless e.missing_name? "#{module_name}Helper"
end

22 Extensions to LoadError

Active Support adds is_missing? to LoadError, and also assigns that class to the constant MissingSourceFile for backwards compatibility.

Given a path name is_missing? tests whether the exception was raised due to that particular file (except perhaps for the ".rb" extension).

For example, when an action of ArticlesController is called Rails tries to load articles_helper.rb, but that file may not exist. That's fine, the helper module is not mandatory so Rails silences a load error. But it could be the case that the helper module does exist and in turn requires another library that is missing. In that case Rails must reraise the exception. The method is_missing? provides a way to distinguish both cases:

def default_helper_module!
  module_name = name.sub(/Controller$/, '')
  module_path = module_name.underscore
  helper module_path
rescue MissingSourceFile => e
  raise e unless e.is_missing? "helpers/#{module_path}_helper"
rescue NameError => e
  raise e unless e.missing_name? "#{module_name}Helper"
end

反馈

欢迎帮忙改善指南质量。

如发现任何错误，欢迎修正。开始贡献前，可先行阅读贡献指南：文档。

翻译如有错误，深感抱歉，欢迎 Fork 修正，或至此处回报。

文章可能有未完成或过时的内容。请先检查 Edge Guides 来确定问题在 master 是否已经修掉了。再上 master 补上缺少的文件。内容参考 Ruby on Rails 指南准则来了解行文风格。

最后，任何关于 Ruby on Rails 文档的讨论，欢迎到 rubyonrails-docs 邮件群组。