BasicObject

BasicObject is the parent class of all classes in Ruby. It's an explicit blank class.

BasicObject can be used for creating object hierarchies independent of Ruby's object hierarchy, proxy objects like the Delegator class, or other uses where namespace pollution from Ruby's methods and classes must be avoided.

To avoid polluting BasicObject for other users an appropriately named subclass of BasicObject should be created instead of directly modifying BasicObject:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
end

BasicObject does not include Kernel (for methods like puts) and BasicObject is outside of the namespace of the standard library so common classes will not be found without a using a full class path.

A variety of strategies can be used to provide useful portions of the standard library to subclasses of BasicObject. A subclass could include Kernel to obtain puts, exit, etc. A custom Kernel-like module could be created and included or delegation can be used via method_missing:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
  DELEGATE = [:puts, :p]

  def method_missing(name, *args, &block)
    super unless DELEGATE.include? name
    ::Kernel.send(name, *args, &block)
  end

  def respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false)
    DELEGATE.include?(name) or super
  end
end

Access to classes and modules from the Ruby standard library can be obtained in a BasicObject subclass by referencing the desired constant from the root like ::File or ::Enumerator. Like method_missing, const_missing can be used to delegate constant lookup to Object:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
  def self.const_missing(name)
    ::Object.const_get(name)
  end
end

Methods

#

!,
!=,
==,
__id__,
__send__

E

equal?

I

instance_eval,
instance_exec

N

Class Public methods

new() Link

Not documented

Source: show

static VALUE
rb_obj_dummy(void)
{
    return Qnil;
}

Instance Public methods

!obj → true or false Link

Boolean negate.

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_not(VALUE obj)
{
    return RTEST(obj) ? Qfalse : Qtrue;
}

obj != other → true or false Link

Returns true if two objects are not-equal, otherwise false.

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_not_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2)
{
    VALUE result = rb_funcall(obj1, id_eq, 1, obj2);
    return RTEST(result) ? Qfalse : Qtrue;
}

obj == other → true or false Link

Equality — At the Object level, == returns true only if obj and other are the same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to provide class-specific meaning.

Unlike ==, the equal? method should never be overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b) if and only if a is the same object as b):

obj = "a"
other = obj.dup

a == other      #=> true
a.equal? other  #=> false
a.equal? a      #=> true

The eql? method returns true if obj and other refer to the same hash key. This is used by Hash to test members for equality. For objects of class Object, eql? is synonymous with ==. Subclasses normally continue this tradition by aliasing eql? to their overridden == method, but there are exceptions. Numeric types, for example, perform type conversion across ==, but not across eql?, so:

1 == 1.0     #=> true
1.eql? 1.0   #=> false

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2)
{
    if (obj1 == obj2) return Qtrue;
    return Qfalse;
}

obj.__id__ → integer obj.object_id → integer Link

Returns an integer identifier for obj.

The same number will be returned on all calls to id for a given object, and no two active objects will share an id.

Object#object_id is a different concept from the :name notation, which returns the symbol id of name.

Replaces the deprecated Object#id.

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_id(VALUE obj)
{
    /*
     *                32-bit VALUE space
     *          MSB ------------------------ LSB
     *  false   00000000000000000000000000000000
     *  true    00000000000000000000000000000010
     *  nil     00000000000000000000000000000100
     *  undef   00000000000000000000000000000110
     *  symbol  ssssssssssssssssssssssss00001110
     *  object  oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo00        = 0 (mod sizeof(RVALUE))
     *  fixnum  fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1
     *
     *                    object_id space
     *                                       LSB
     *  false   00000000000000000000000000000000
     *  true    00000000000000000000000000000010
     *  nil     00000000000000000000000000000100
     *  undef   00000000000000000000000000000110
     *  symbol   000SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS0        S...S % A = 4 (S...S = s...s * A + 4)
     *  object   oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0        o...o % A = 0
     *  fixnum  fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff1        bignum if required
     *
     *  where A = sizeof(RVALUE)/4
     *
     *  sizeof(RVALUE) is
     *  20 if 32-bit, double is 4-byte aligned
     *  24 if 32-bit, double is 8-byte aligned
     *  40 if 64-bit
     */
    if (SYMBOL_P(obj)) {
        return (SYM2ID(obj) * sizeof(RVALUE) + (4 << 2)) | FIXNUM_FLAG;
    }
    else if (FLONUM_P(obj)) {
#if SIZEOF_LONG == SIZEOF_VOIDP
        return LONG2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj);
#else
        return LL2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj);
#endif
    }
    else if (SPECIAL_CONST_P(obj)) {
        return LONG2NUM((SIGNED_VALUE)obj);
    }
    return nonspecial_obj_id(obj);
}

foo.send(symbol [, args...]) → obj foo.__send__(symbol [, args...]) → obj Link

Invokes the method identified by symbol, passing it any arguments specified. You can use __send__ if the name send clashes with an existing method in obj.

class Klass
  def hello(*args)
    "Hello " + args.join(' ')
  end
end
k = Klass.new
k.send :hello, "gentle", "readers"   #=> "Hello gentle readers"

Source: show

VALUE
rb_f_send(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE recv)
{
    return send_internal(argc, argv, recv, CALL_FCALL);
}

obj.equal?(other) → true or false Link

Equality — At the Object level, == returns true only if obj and other are the same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendant classes to provide class-specific meaning.

Unlike ==, the equal? method should never be overridden by subclasses as it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b) if and only if a is the same object as b):

obj = "a"
other = obj.dup

a == other      #=> true
a.equal? other  #=> false
a.equal? a      #=> true

1 == 1.0     #=> true
1.eql? 1.0   #=> false

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_equal(VALUE obj1, VALUE obj2)
{
    if (obj1 == obj2) return Qtrue;
    return Qfalse;
}

obj.instance_eval(string [, filename [, lineno]] ) → obj obj.instance_eval {| | block } → obj Link

Evaluates a string containing Ruby source code, or the given block, within the context of the receiver (obj). In order to set the context, the variable self is set to obj while the code is executing, giving the code access to obj's instance variables. In the version of instance_eval that takes a String, the optional second and third parameters supply a filename and starting line number that are used when reporting compilation errors.

class KlassWithSecret
  def initialize
    @secret = 99
  end
end
k = KlassWithSecret.new
k.instance_eval { @secret }   #=> 99

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_instance_eval(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    VALUE klass;

    if (SPECIAL_CONST_P(self)) {
        klass = rb_special_singleton_class(self);
    }
    else {
        klass = rb_singleton_class(self);
    }
    return specific_eval(argc, argv, klass, self);
}

obj.instance_exec(arg...) {|var...| block } → obj Link

Executes the given block within the context of the receiver (obj). In order to set the context, the variable self is set to obj while the code is executing, giving the code access to obj's instance variables. Arguments are passed as block parameters.

class KlassWithSecret
  def initialize
    @secret = 99
  end
end
k = KlassWithSecret.new
k.instance_exec(5) {|x| @secret+x }   #=> 104

Source: show

VALUE
rb_obj_instance_exec(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    VALUE klass;

    if (SPECIAL_CONST_P(self)) {
        klass = rb_special_singleton_class(self);
    }
    else {
        klass = rb_singleton_class(self);
    }
    return yield_under(klass, self, rb_ary_new4(argc, argv));
}

Class BasicObject <