The Forwardable module in Ruby — Part II

Mehdi Farsi

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Jul 17, 2018 · 2 min read

In this article we’re going to explore the following topics:

• The SingleForwardable module
• Add behavior to an object
• Add behavior to a class or a module

NB: feel free to have a look to the Part I if you’re unfamiliar with the Forwardable module in Ruby.

Before to start

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The SingleForwardable module

SingleForwardable is a module, which can be used to add behavior to an object, a class or a module.

This module is included to the singleton class using the extend keyword in order to add methods at class-level (to keep it simple).

Add Behavior to an Object

Let’s breakdown the example provided by the official documentation

# in single_forwardable.rb
require 'forwardable'printer = String.newprinter.extend SingleForwardable
printer.def_delegator "STDOUT", "puts"printer.puts "Howdy!"

produces

?> ruby single_forwardable.rb
Howdy!

printer is an instance of String.

This object extends the SingleForwardable module. This means that the methods inside the module will be added to the singleton class of the printer object. So, only this specific instance of String will enjoy the properties of the SingleForwardable module.

Then we use the printer.def_delegator method to forward any call to printer.puts to STDOUT (standard output).

That’s why Howdy! is printed out on the terminal.

The Forwardable module can also do so. But for clarity always prefer to use the SingleForwardable module.

Add Behavior to a Class or a Module

Let’s breakdown the example provided by the official documentation

# in single_forwardable.rb
require 'forwardable'class Implementation
  def self.service
    puts "serviced!"
  end
endmodule Facade
  extend SingleForwardable
  
  def_delegator :Implementation, :service
endFacade.service

produces

$> ruby single_forwardable.rb
serviced!

Here the Implementation class defines a class-level method named service.

Then the Facade module extends SingleForwardable.

After, the def_delegator method is called with:

• as first argument the :Implementation class as receiver
• as second argument the :service message

This means that any call to Facade.service will automatically forward the service message to the Implementation receiver

The Forwardable module cannot set a Class/Module as receiver of a forwarded message.

Voilà !

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