conditional chaining in ruby
You could put your methods into an array and then execute everything in this array
l= []
l << :method_a if a
l << :method_b if b
l << :method_c if c
l.inject(object) { |obj, method| obj.send(method) }
Object#send
executes the method with the given name. Enumerable#inject
iterates over the array, while giving the block the last returned value and the current array item.
If you want your method to take arguments you could also do it this way
l= []
l << [:method_a, arg_a1, arg_a2] if a
l << [:method_b, arg_b1] if b
l << [:method_c, arg_c1, arg_c2, arg_c3] if c
l.inject(object) { |obj, method_and_args| obj.send(*method_and_args) }
Although the inject method is perfectly valid, that kind of Enumerable use does confuse people and suffers from the limitation of not being able to pass arbitrary parameters.
A pattern like this may be better for this application:
object = my_object
if (a)
object = object.method_a(:arg_a)
end
if (b)
object = object.method_b
end
if (c)
object = object.method_c('arg_c1', 'arg_c2')
end
I've found this to be useful when using named scopes. For instance:
scope = Person
if (params[:filter_by_age])
scope = scope.in_age_group(params[:filter_by_age])
end
if (params[:country])
scope = scope.in_country(params[:country])
end
# Usually a will_paginate-type call is made here, too
@people = scope.all
You can use tap
:
my_object.tap{|o|o.method_a if a}.tap{|o|o.method_b if b}.tap{|o|o.method_c if c}
Sample class to demonstrate chaining methods that return a copied instance without modifying the caller. This might be a lib required by your app.
class Foo
attr_accessor :field
def initialize
@field=[]
end
def dup
# Note: objects in @field aren't dup'ed!
super.tap{|e| e.field=e.field.dup }
end
def a
dup.tap{|e| e.field << :a }
end
def b
dup.tap{|e| e.field << :b }
end
def c
dup.tap{|e| e.field << :c }
end
end
monkeypatch: this is what you want to add to your app to enable conditional chaining
class Object
# passes self to block and returns result of block.
# More cumbersome to call than #chain_if, but useful if you want to put
# complex conditions in the block, or call a different method when your cond is false.
def chain_block(&block)
yield self
end
# passes self to block
# bool:
# if false, returns caller without executing block.
# if true, return result of block.
# Useful if your condition is simple, and you want to merely pass along the previous caller in the chain if false.
def chain_if(bool, &block)
bool ? yield(self) : self
end
end
Sample usage
# sample usage: chain_block
>> cond_a, cond_b, cond_c = true, false, true
>> f.chain_block{|e| cond_a ? e.a : e }.chain_block{|e| cond_b ? e.b : e }.chain_block{|e| cond_c ? e.c : e }
=> #<Foo:0x007fe71027ab60 @field=[:a, :c]>
# sample usage: chain_if
>> cond_a, cond_b, cond_c = false, true, false
>> f.chain_if(cond_a, &:a).chain_if(cond_b, &:b).chain_if(cond_c, &:c)
=> #<Foo:0x007fe7106a7e90 @field=[:b]>
# The chain_if call can also allow args
>> obj.chain_if(cond) {|e| e.argified_method(args) }