Given a class, see if instance has method (Ruby)

I know in Ruby that I can use respond_to? to check if an object has a certain method.

But, given the class, how can I check if the instance has a certain method?

i.e, something like

Foo.new.respond_to?(:bar)

But I feel like there's gotta be a better way than instantiating a new instance.

I don't know why everyone is suggesting you should be using instance_methods and include? when method_defined? does the job.

class Test
  def hello; end
end

Test.method_defined? :hello #=> true

NOTE

In case you are coming to Ruby from another OO language OR you think that method_defined means ONLY methods that you defined explicitly with:

def my_method
end

then read this:

In Ruby, a property (attribute) on your model is basically a method also. So method_defined? will also return true for properties, not just methods.

For example:

Given an instance of a class that has a String attribute first_name:

<instance>.first_name.class #=> String

<instance>.class.method_defined?(:first_name) #=> true

since first_name is both an attribute and a method (and a string of type String).

You can use method_defined? as follows:

String.method_defined? :upcase # => true

Much easier, portable and efficient than the instance_methods.include? everyone else seems to be suggesting.

Keep in mind that you won't know if a class responds dynamically to some calls with method_missing, for example by redefining respond_to?, or since Ruby 1.9.2 by defining respond_to_missing?.

Actually this doesn't work for both Objects and Classes.

This does:

class TestClass
  def methodName
  end
end

So with the given answer, this works:

TestClass.method_defined? :methodName # => TRUE

But this does NOT work:

t = TestClass.new
t.method_defined? : methodName  # => ERROR!

So I use this for both classes and objects:

Classes:

TestClass.methods.include? 'methodName'  # => TRUE

Objects:

t = TestClass.new
t.methods.include? 'methodName'  # => TRUE

The answer to "Given a class, see if instance has method (Ruby)" is better. Apparently Ruby has this built-in, and I somehow missed it. My answer is left for reference, regardless.

Ruby classes respond to the methods instance_methods and public_instance_methods. In Ruby 1.8, the first lists all instance method names in an array of strings, and the second restricts it to public methods. The second behavior is what you'd most likely want, since respond_to? restricts itself to public methods by default, as well.

Foo.public_instance_methods.include?('bar')

In Ruby 1.9, though, those methods return arrays of symbols.

Foo.public_instance_methods.include?(:bar)

If you're planning on doing this often, you might want to extend Module to include a shortcut method. (It may seem odd to assign this to Module instead of Class, but since that's where the instance_methods methods live, it's best to keep in line with that pattern.)

class Module
  def instance_respond_to?(method_name)
    public_instance_methods.include?(method_name)
  end
end

If you want to support both Ruby 1.8 and Ruby 1.9, that would be a convenient place to add the logic to search for both strings and symbols, as well.

Given a class, see if instance has method (Ruby)

Related

Recent Posts