Ruby supports two forms of objectified methods. Class Method is used to represent methods that are associated with a particular object: these method objects are bound to that object. Bound method objects for an object can be created using Object#method.
Ruby also supports unbound methods; methods objects that are not associated with a particular object. These can be created either by calling Module#instance_method or by calling unbind on a bound method object. The result of both of these is an UnboundMethod object.
Unbound methods can only be called after they are bound to an object. That object must be be a kind_of? the method‘s original class.
class Square
def area
@side * @side
end
def initialize(side)
@side = side
end
end
area_un = Square.instance_method(:area)
s = Square.new(12)
area = area_un.bind(s)
area.call #=> 144
Unbound methods are a reference to the method at the time it was objectified: subsequent changes to the underlying class will not affect the unbound method.
class Test
def test
:original
end
end
um = Test.instance_method(:test)
class Test
def test
:modified
end
end
t = Test.new
t.test #=> :modified
um.bind(t).call #=> :original
Returns an indication of the number of arguments accepted by a method. Returns a nonnegative integer for methods that take a fixed number of arguments. For Ruby methods that take a variable number of arguments, returns -n-1, where n is the number of required arguments. For methods written in C, returns -1 if the call takes a variable number of arguments.
class C
def one; end
def two(a); end
def three(*a); end
def four(a, b); end
def five(a, b, *c); end
def six(a, b, *c, &d); end
end
c = C.new
c.method(:one).arity #=> 0
c.method(:two).arity #=> 1
c.method(:three).arity #=> -1
c.method(:four).arity #=> 2
c.method(:five).arity #=> -3
c.method(:six).arity #=> -3
"cat".method(:size).arity #=> 0
"cat".method(:replace).arity #=> 1
"cat".method(:squeeze).arity #=> -1
"cat".method(:count).arity #=> -1
Bind umeth to obj. If Klass was the class from which umeth was obtained, obj.kind_of?(Klass) must be true.
class A
def test
puts "In test, class = #{self.class}"
end
end
class B < A
end
class C < B
end
um = B.instance_method(:test)
bm = um.bind(C.new)
bm.call
bm = um.bind(B.new)
bm.call
bm = um.bind(A.new)
bm.call
produces:
In test, class = C
In test, class = B
prog.rb:16:in `bind': bind argument must be an instance of B (TypeError)
from prog.rb:16
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