Feature #16137: Add === to UnboundMethod

• Status: Open
• Priority: Normal
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -

[okuramasafumi (Masafumi OKURA)]

Abstract

UnboundMethod class should have === so that it can be used in case statement.

Background

Method class has === method so that we can do something like:

require 'prime'
case 11
when Prime.method(:prime?) then :prime
end

However, we cannot do something like this:

positive = Integer.instance_method(:positive?)
case 11
when positive then :positive
end

Proposal

Add === method to UnboundMethod class.

Implementation

Minimal implementation in Ruby could be:

class UnboundMethod
  def ===(other)
    bind(other).call
  end
end

Summary

=== for UnboundMethod can improve readability in case statement.

[osyo (manga osyo)]

hi.

How about making # bind_call an alias of# ===?

class UnboundMethod
  alias_method :===, :bind_call
end

see: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15955#note-10

Also, you should consider the difference between when Integer.instance_method(:positive?) or when: positive?.to_proc.

case 11
when :positive?.to_proc then :positive
end

or

case 11
when Integer.instance_method(:positive?) then :positive
end

Thank you :)

[shevegen (Robert A. Heiler)]

Since I love case/when statements in ruby, and I also like the idea to decouple methods
at "runtime", I agree with okuramasafumi.

I can not add much to potential use cases or what osyo asked, but personally I just like
the idea. :)

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

As UnboundMethod#bind_call raises a TypeError unless the argument class matches, it isn't for when.

And the example doesn't look more readable to me.

[Eregon (Benoit Daloze)]

With the new pattern matching:

case 11
in n if n.positive?
  p :positive
end

Isn't that more readable and general?