How to list all methods for an object in Ruby?

Module#instance_methods

Returns an array containing the names of the public and protected instance methods in the receiver. For a module, these are the public and protected methods; for a class, they are the instance (not singleton) methods. With no argument, or with an argument that is false, the instance methods in mod are returned, otherwise the methods in mod and mod’s superclasses are returned.

module A
  def method1()  end
end
class B
  def method2()  end
end
class C < B
  def method3()  end
end

A.instance_methods                #=> [:method1]
B.instance_methods(false)         #=> [:method2]
C.instance_methods(false)         #=> [:method3]
C.instance_methods(true).length   #=> 43

Or just User.methods(false) to return only the methods defined within that class.

You can do

current_user.methods

For better listing

puts "\n\current_user.methods : "+ current_user.methods.sort.join("\n").to_s+"\n\n"

The following will list the methods that the User class has that the base Object class does not have...

>> User.methods - Object.methods
=> ["field_types", "maximum", "create!", "active_connections", "to_dropdown",
    "content_columns", "su_pw?", "default_timezone", "encode_quoted_value", 
    "reloadable?", "update", "reset_sequence_name", "default_timezone=", 
    "validate_find_options", "find_on_conditions_without_deprecation", 
    "validates_size_of", "execute_simple_calculation", "attr_protected", 
    "reflections", "table_name_prefix", ...

Note that methods is a method for Classes and for Class instances.

Here's the methods that my User class has that are not in the ActiveRecord base class:

>> User.methods - ActiveRecord::Base.methods
=> ["field_types", "su_pw?", "set_login_attr", "create_user_and_conf_user", 
    "original_table_name", "field_type", "authenticate", "set_default_order",
    "id_name?", "id_name_column", "original_locking_column", "default_order",
    "subclass_associations",  ... 
# I ran the statements in the console.

Note that the methods created as a result of the (many) has_many relationships defined in the User class are not in the results of the methods call.

Added Note that :has_many does not add methods directly. Instead, the ActiveRecord machinery uses the Ruby method_missing and responds_to techniques to handle method calls on the fly. As a result, the methods are not listed in the methods method result.