Calling Methods

Calling a method sends a message to an object so it can perform some work.

In ruby you send a message to an object like this:

my_method()

Note that the parenthesis are optional:

my_method

Except when there is difference between using and omitting parentheses, this document uses parenthesis when arguments are present to avoid confusion.

This section only covers calling methods. See also the syntax documentation on defining methods.

Receiver

self is the default receiver. If you don’t specify any receiver self will be used. To specify a receiver use .:

my_object.my_method

This sends the my_method message to my_object. Any object can be a receiver but depending on the method’s visibility sending a message may raise a NoMethodError.

You may also use :: to designate a receiver, but this is rarely used due to the potential for confusion with :: for namespaces.

Chaining Method Calls

You can “chain” method calls by immediately following one method call with another.

This example chains methods Array#append and Array#compact:

a = [:foo, 'bar', 2]
a1 = [:baz, nil, :bam, nil]
a2 = a.append(*a1).compact
a2 # => [:foo, "bar", 2, :baz, :bam]

Details:

First method merge creates a copy of a, appends (separately) each element of a1 to the copy, and returns
```
[:foo, "bar", 2, :baz, nil, :bam, nil]
```
Chained method compact creates a copy of that return value, removes its nil-valued entries, and returns
```
[:foo, "bar", 2, :baz, :bam]
```

You can chain methods that are in different classes. This example chains methods Hash#to_a and Array#reverse:

h = {foo: 0, bar: 1, baz: 2}
h.to_a.reverse # => [[:baz, 2], [:bar, 1], [:foo, 0]]

Details:

First method Hash#to_a converts a to an Array, and returns
```
[[:foo, 0], [:bar, 1], [:baz, 2]]
```
Chained method Array#reverse creates copy of that return value, reverses it, and returns
```
[[:baz, 2], [:bar, 1], [:foo, 0]]
```

&., called “safe navigation operator”, allows to skip method call when receiver is nil. It returns nil and doesn’t evaluate method’s arguments if the call is skipped.

REGEX = /(ruby) is (\w+)/i
"Ruby is awesome!".match(REGEX).values_at(1, 2)
# => ["Ruby", "awesome"]
"Python is fascinating!".match(REGEX).values_at(1, 2)
# NoMethodError: undefined method `values_at' for nil:NilClass
"Python is fascinating!".match(REGEX)&.values_at(1, 2)
# => nil

This allows to easily chain methods which could return empty value. Note that &. skips only one next call, so for a longer chain it is necessary to add operator on each level:

"Python is fascinating!".match(REGEX)&.values_at(1, 2).join(' - ')
# NoMethodError: undefined method `join' for nil:NilClass
"Python is fascinating!".match(REGEX)&.values_at(1, 2)&.join(' - ')
# => nil

Arguments

There are three types of arguments when sending a message, the positional arguments, keyword (or named) arguments and the block argument. Each message sent may use one, two or all types of arguments, but the arguments must be supplied in this order.

All arguments in ruby are passed by reference and are not lazily evaluated.

Each argument is separated by a ,:

my_method(1, '2', :three)

Arguments may be an expression, a hash argument:

'key' => value

or a keyword argument:

key: value

Hash and keyword arguments must be contiguous and must appear after all positional arguments, but may be mixed:

my_method('a' => 1, b: 2, 'c' => 3)

Positional Arguments

The positional arguments for the message follow the method name:

my_method(argument1, argument2)

In many cases, parenthesis are not necessary when sending a message:

my_method argument1, argument2

However, parenthesis are necessary to avoid ambiguity. This will raise a SyntaxError because ruby does not know which method argument3 should be sent to:

method_one argument1, method_two argument2, argument3

If the method definition has a *argument extra positional arguments will be assigned to argument in the method as an Array.

If the method definition doesn’t include keyword arguments, the keyword or hash-type arguments are assigned as a single hash to the last argument:

def my_method(options)
  p options
end

my_method('a' => 1, b: 2) # prints: {'a'=>1, :b=>2}

If too many positional arguments are given, an ArgumentError is raised.

Default Positional Arguments

When the method defines default arguments you do not need to supply all the arguments to the method. Ruby will fill in the missing arguments in-order.

First we’ll cover the simple case where the default arguments appear on the right. Consider this method:

def my_method(a, b, c = 3, d = 4)
  p [a, b, c, d]
end

Here c and d have default values which ruby will apply for you. If you send only two arguments to this method:

my_method(1, 2)

You will see ruby print [1, 2, 3, 4].

If you send three arguments:

my_method(1, 2, 5)

You will see ruby print [1, 2, 5, 4]

Ruby fills in the missing arguments from left to right.

Ruby allows default values to appear in the middle of positional arguments. Consider this more complicated method:

def my_method(a, b = 2, c = 3, d)
  p [a, b, c, d]
end

Here b and c have default values. If you send only two arguments to this method:

my_method(1, 4)

You will see ruby print [1, 2, 3, 4].

If you send three arguments:

my_method(1, 5, 6)

You will see ruby print [1, 5, 3, 6].

Describing this in words gets complicated and confusing. I’ll describe it in variables and values instead.

First 1 is assigned to a, then 6 is assigned to d. This leaves only the arguments with default values. Since 5 has not been assigned to a value yet, it is given to b and c uses its default value of 3.

Keyword Arguments

Keyword arguments follow any positional arguments and are separated by commas like positional arguments:

my_method(positional1, keyword1: value1, keyword2: value2)

Any keyword arguments not given will use the default value from the method definition. If a keyword argument is given that the method did not list, and the method definition does not accept arbitrary keyword arguments, an ArgumentError will be raised.

Keyword argument value can be omitted, meaning the value will be fetched from the context by the name of the key

keyword1 = 'some value'
my_method(positional1, keyword1:)
# ...is the same as
my_method(positional1, keyword1: keyword1)

Be aware that when method parenthesis are omitted, too, the parsing order might be unexpected:

my_method positional1, keyword1:

some_other_expression

# ...is actually parsed as
my_method(positional1, keyword1: some_other_expression)

Block Argument

The block argument sends a closure from the calling scope to the method.

The block argument is always last when sending a message to a method. A block is sent to a method using do ... end or { ... }:

my_method do
  # ...
end

or:

my_method {
  # ...
}

do end has lower precedence than { } so:

method_1 method_2 {
  # ...
}

Sends the block to method_2 while:

method_1 method_2 do
  # ...
end

Sends the block to method_1. Note that in the first case if parentheses are used the block is sent to method_1.

A block will accept arguments from the method it was sent to. Arguments are defined similar to the way a method defines arguments. The block’s arguments go in | ... | following the opening do or {:

my_method do |argument1, argument2|
  # ...
end

Block Local Arguments

You may also declare block-local arguments to a block using ; in the block arguments list. Assigning to a block-local argument will not override local arguments outside the block in the caller’s scope:

def my_method
  yield self
end

place = "world"

my_method do |obj; place|
  place = "block"
  puts "hello #{obj} this is #{place}"
end

puts "place is: #{place}"

This prints:

hello main this is block
place is world

So the place variable in the block is not the same place variable as outside the block. Removing ; place from the block arguments gives this result:

hello main this is block
place is block

Unpacking Positional Arguments

Given the following method:

def my_method(argument1, argument2, argument3)
end

You can turn an Array into an argument list with * (or splat) operator:

arguments = [1, 2, 3]
my_method(*arguments)

or:

arguments = [2, 3]
my_method(1, *arguments)

Both are equivalent to:

my_method(1, 2, 3)

The * unpacking operator can be applied to any object, not only arrays. If the object responds to a #to_a method, this method is called, and is expected to return an Array, and elements of this array are passed as separate positional arguments:

class Name
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def to_a = @name.split(' ')
end

name = Name.new('Jane Doe')
p(*name)
# prints separate values:
#   Jane
#   Doe

If the object doesn’t have a #to_a method, the object itself is passed as one argument:

class Name
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end
end

name = Name.new('Jane Doe')
p(*name)
# Prints the object itself:
#   #<Name:0x00007f9d07bca650 @name="Jane Doe">

This allows to handle one or many arguments polymorphically. Note also that nil has NilClass#to_a defined to return an empty array, so conditional unpacking is possible:

my_method(*(some_arguments if some_condition?))

If #to_a method exists and does not return an Array, it would be an error on unpacking:

class Name
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def to_a = @name
end

name = Name.new('Jane Doe')
p(*name)
#  can't convert Name to Array (Name#to_a gives String) (TypeError)

You may also use the ** (described next) to convert a Hash into keyword arguments.

If the number of objects in the Array do not match the number of arguments for the method, an ArgumentError will be raised.

If the splat operator comes first in the call, parentheses must be used to avoid an ambiguity of interpretation as an unpacking operator or multiplication operator. In this case, Ruby issues a warning in verbose mode:

my_method *arguments  # warning: '*' interpreted as argument prefix
my_method(*arguments) # no warning

Unpacking Keyword Arguments

Given the following method:

def my_method(first: 1, second: 2, third: 3)
end

You can turn a Hash into keyword arguments with the ** (keyword splat) operator:

arguments = { first: 3, second: 4, third: 5 }
my_method(**arguments)

or:

arguments = { first: 3, second: 4 }
my_method(third: 5, **arguments)

Both are equivalent to:

my_method(first: 3, second: 4, third: 5)

The ** unpacking operator can be applied to any object, not only hashes. If the object responds to a #to_hash method, this method is called, and is expected to return an Hash, and elements of this hash are passed as keyword arguments:

class Name
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def to_hash = {first: @name.split(' ').first, last: @name.split(' ').last}
end

name = Name.new('Jane Doe')
p(**name)
# Prints: {name: "Jane", last: "Doe"}

Unlike * operator, ** raises an error when used on an object that doesn’t respond to #to_hash. The one exception is nil, which doesn’t explicitly define this method, but is still allowed to be used in ** unpacking, not adding any keyword arguments.

Again, this allows for conditional unpacking:

my_method(some: params, **(some_extra_params if pass_extra_params?))

Like * operator, ** raises an error when the object responds to #to_hash, but it doesn’t return a Hash.

If the method definition uses the keyword splat operator to gather arbitrary keyword arguments, they will not be gathered by *:

def my_method(*a, **kw)
  p arguments: a, keywords: kw
end

my_method(1, 2, '3' => 4, five: 6)

Prints:

{:arguments=>[1, 2], :keywords=>{'3'=>4, :five=>6}}

Proc to Block Conversion

Given a method that use a block:

def my_method
  yield self
end

You can convert a proc or lambda to a block argument with the & (block conversion) operator:

argument = proc { |a| puts "#{a.inspect} was yielded" }

my_method(&argument)

If the block conversion operator comes first in the call, parenthesis must be used to avoid a warning:

my_method &argument  # warning
my_method(&argument) # no warning

Method Lookup

When you send a message, Ruby looks up the method that matches the name of the message for the receiver. Methods are stored in classes and modules so method lookup walks these, not the objects themselves.

Here is the order of method lookup for the receiver’s class or module R:

The prepended modules of R in reverse order
For a matching method in R
The included modules of R in reverse order

If R is a class with a superclass, this is repeated with R‘s superclass until a method is found.

Once a match is found method lookup stops.

If no match is found this repeats from the beginning, but looking for method_missing. The default method_missing is BasicObject#method_missing which raises a NameError when invoked.

If refinements (an experimental feature) are active, the method lookup changes. See the {file:syntax/refinements.rdoc refinements documentation} for details.