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Class: OpenStruct

Relationships & Source Files
Inherits: Object
Defined in: lib/ostruct.rb

Overview

An OpenStruct is a data structure, similar to a Hash, that allows the definition of arbitrary attributes with their accompanying values. This is accomplished by using Ruby's metaprogramming to define methods on the class itself.

Examples

require "ostruct"

person = OpenStruct.new
person.name = "John Smith"
person.age  = 70

person.name      # => "John Smith"
person.age       # => 70
person.address   # => nil

An OpenStruct employs a Hash internally to store the attributes and values and can even be initialized with one:

australia = OpenStruct.new(:country => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra")
  # => #<OpenStruct country="Australia", capital="Canberra">

Hash keys with spaces or characters that could normally not be used for method calls (e.g. ()[]*) will not be immediately available on the OpenStruct object as a method for retrieval or assignment, but can still be reached through the Object#send method.

measurements = OpenStruct.new("length (in inches)" => 24)
measurements.send("length (in inches)")   # => 24

message = OpenStruct.new(:queued? => true)
message.queued?                           # => true
message.send("queued?=", false)
message.queued?                           # => false

Removing the presence of an attribute requires the execution of the delete_field method as setting the property value to nil will not remove the attribute.

first_pet  = OpenStruct.new(:name => "Rowdy", :owner => "John Smith")
second_pet = OpenStruct.new(:name => "Rowdy")

first_pet.owner = nil
first_pet                 # => #<OpenStruct name="Rowdy", owner=nil>
first_pet == second_pet   # => false

first_pet.delete_field(:owner)
first_pet                 # => #<OpenStruct name="Rowdy">
first_pet == second_pet   # => true

Implementation

An OpenStruct utilizes Ruby's method lookup structure to find and define the necessary methods for properties. This is accomplished through the methods method_missing and define_singleton_method.

This should be a consideration if there is a concern about the performance of the objects that are created, as there is much more overhead in the setting of these properties compared to using a Hash or a Struct.

Constant Summary

Class Method Summary

Instance Attribute Summary

Instance Method Summary

Constructor Details

.new(hash = nil) ⇒ OpenStruct

Creates a new OpenStruct object. By default, the resulting OpenStruct object will have no attributes.

The optional #hash, if given, will generate attributes and values (can be a Hash, an OpenStruct or a Struct). For example:

require "ostruct"
hash = { "country" => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra" }
data = OpenStruct.new(hash)

data   # => #<OpenStruct country="Australia", capital="Canberra">
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 91

def initialize(hash=nil)
  @table = {}
  if hash
    hash.each_pair do |k, v|
      k = k.to_sym
      @table[k] = v
    end
  end
end

Dynamic Method Handling

This class handles dynamic methods through the method_missing method

#method_missing(mid, *args)

This method is for internal use only.
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 198

def method_missing(mid, *args) # :nodoc:
  len = args.length
  if mname = mid[/.*(?==\z)/m]
    if len != 1
      raise ArgumentError, "wrong number of arguments (#{len} for 1)", caller(1)
    end
    modifiable?[new_ostruct_member!(mname)] = args[0]
  elsif len == 0 # and /\A[a-z_]\w*\z/ =~ mid #
    if @table.key?(mid)
      new_ostruct_member!(mid) unless frozen?
      @table[mid]
    end
  else
    begin
      super
    rescue NoMethodError => err
      err.backtrace.shift
      raise
    end
  end
end

Instance Attribute Details

#modifiable (readonly, protected)

This method is for internal use only.

Alias for #modifiable?.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 166

alias modifiable modifiable? # :nodoc:

#table (readonly, protected) Also known as: #table!

This method is for internal use only.
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 328

attr_reader :table # :nodoc:

#table! (readonly)

Alias for #table.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 330

alias table! table

Instance Method Details

#==(other)

Compares this object and other for equality. An OpenStruct is equal to other when other is an OpenStruct and the two objects' Hash tables are equal.

require "ostruct"
first_pet  = OpenStruct.new("name" => "Rowdy")
second_pet = OpenStruct.new(:name  => "Rowdy")
third_pet  = OpenStruct.new("name" => "Rowdy", :age => nil)

first_pet == second_pet   # => true
first_pet == third_pet    # => false
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 345

def ==(other)
  return false unless other.kind_of?(OpenStruct)
  @table == other.table!
end

#[](name) ⇒ Object

Returns the value of an attribute.

require "ostruct"
person = OpenStruct.new("name" => "John Smith", "age" => 70)
person[:age]   # => 70, same as person.age
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 230

def [](name)
  @table[name.to_sym]
end

#[]=(name, obj) ⇒ Object

Sets the value of an attribute.

require "ostruct"
person = OpenStruct.new("name" => "John Smith", "age" => 70)
person[:age] = 42   # equivalent to person.age = 42
person.age          # => 42
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 245

def []=(name, value)
  modifiable?[new_ostruct_member!(name)] = value
end

#delete_field(name)

Removes the named field from the object. Returns the value that the field contained if it was defined.

require "ostruct"

person = OpenStruct.new(name: "John", age: 70, pension: 300)

person.delete_field("age")   # => 70
person                       # => #<OpenStruct name="John", pension=300>

Setting the value to nil will not remove the attribute:

person.pension = nil
person                 # => #<OpenStruct name="John", pension=nil>
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 294

def delete_field(name)
  sym = name.to_sym
  begin
    singleton_class.__send__(:remove_method, sym, "#{sym}=")
  rescue NameError
  end
  @table.delete(sym) do
    raise NameError.new("no field `#{sym}' in #{self}", sym)
  end
end

#dig(name, ...) ⇒ Object

Extracts the nested value specified by the sequence of name objects by calling dig at each step, returning nil if any intermediate step is nil.

require "ostruct"
address = OpenStruct.new("city" => "Anytown NC", "zip" => 12345)
person  = OpenStruct.new("name" => "John Smith", "address" => address)

person.dig(:address, "zip")            # => 12345
person.dig(:business_address, "zip")   # => nil

data = OpenStruct.new(:array => [1, [2, 3]])

data.dig(:array, 1, 0)   # => 2
data.dig(:array, 0, 0)   # TypeError: Integer does not have #dig method
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 269

def dig(name, *names)
  begin
    name = name.to_sym
  rescue NoMethodError
    raise TypeError, "#{name} is not a symbol nor a string"
  end
  @table.dig(name, *names)
end

#each_pair {|name, value| ... } ⇒ ostruct #each_pairEnumerator

Yields all attributes (as symbols) along with the corresponding values or returns an enumerator if no block is given.

require "ostruct"
data = OpenStruct.new("country" => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra")
data.each_pair.to_a   # => [[:country, "Australia"], [:capital, "Canberra"]]
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 131

def each_pair
  return to_enum(__method__) { @table.size } unless block_given?
  @table.each_pair{|p| yield p}
  self
end

#eql?(other) ⇒ Boolean

Compares this object and other for equality. An OpenStruct is eql? to other when other is an OpenStruct and the two objects' Hash tables are eql?.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 355

def eql?(other)
  return false unless other.kind_of?(OpenStruct)
  @table.eql?(other.table!)
end

#freeze

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 188

def freeze
  @table.each_key {|key| new_ostruct_member!(key)}
  super
end

#hash

Computes a hash code for this OpenStruct. Two OpenStruct objects with the same content will have the same hash code (and will compare using #eql?).

See also Object#hash.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 365

def hash
  @table.hash
end

#initialize_copy(orig)

This method is for internal use only.

Duplicates an OpenStruct object's Hash table.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 102

def initialize_copy(orig) # :nodoc:
  super
  @table = @table.dup
end

#inspect Also known as: #to_s

Returns a string containing a detailed summary of the keys and values.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 310

def inspect
  ids = (Thread.current[InspectKey] ||= [])
  if ids.include?(object_id)
    detail = ' ...'
  else
    ids << object_id
    begin
      detail = @table.map do |key, value|
        " #{key}=#{value.inspect}"
      end.join(',')
    ensure
      ids.pop
    end
  end
  ['#<', self.class, detail, '>'].join
end

#marshal_dump

Provides marshalling support for use by the Marshal library.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 140

def marshal_dump
  @table
end

#marshal_load(x)

Provides marshalling support for use by the Marshal library.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 147

def marshal_load(x)
  @table = x
end

#modifiable?Boolean (readonly, private) Also known as: #modifiable

This method is for internal use only.

Used internally to check if the OpenStruct is able to be modified before granting access to the internal Hash table to be modified.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 155

def modifiable? # :nodoc:
  begin
    @modifiable = true
  rescue
    raise RuntimeError, "can't modify frozen #{self.class}", caller(3)
  end
  @table
end

#new_ostruct_member(name) (protected)

This method is for internal use only.
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 185

alias new_ostruct_member new_ostruct_member! # :nodoc:

#new_ostruct_member!(name) (private) Also known as: #new_ostruct_member

This method is for internal use only.

Used internally to defined properties on the OpenStruct. It does this by using the metaprogramming function define_singleton_method for both the getter method and the setter method.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 174

def new_ostruct_member!(name) # :nodoc:
  name = name.to_sym
  unless singleton_class.method_defined?(name)
    define_singleton_method(name) { @table[name] }
    define_singleton_method("#{name}=") {|x| modifiable?[name] = x}
  end
  name
end

#respond_to_missing?(mid, include_private = false) ⇒ Boolean

This method is for internal use only.
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 193

def respond_to_missing?(mid, include_private = false) # :nodoc:
  mname = mid.to_s.chomp("=").to_sym
  @table&.key?(mname) || super
end

#to_h

Converts the OpenStruct to a hash with keys representing each attribute (as symbols) and their corresponding values.

require "ostruct"
data = OpenStruct.new("country" => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra")
data.to_h   # => {:country => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra" }
[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 115

def to_h
  @table.dup
end

#to_s

Alias for #inspect.

[ GitHub ]

  
# File 'lib/ostruct.rb', line 326

alias :to_s :inspect