Question

I would like to dynamically specify the parent class for a class in Ruby. Consider this code:

class Agent
  def self.hook_up(calling_class, desired_parent_class)
    # Do some magic here
  end
end

class Parent
  def bar
    puts "bar"
  end
end

class Child
  def foo
    puts "foo"
  end

  Agent.hook_up(self, Parent)
end

Child.new.bar

Neither the Parent nor the Child class definition specifies a parent class, so they both inherit from Object. My first question is: what would I need to do in Agent.hook_up in order to make Parent the superclass of Child (so for example Child objects can inherit the ‘bar’ method).

My second question is: do I need to pass the first argument to Agent.hook_up, or is there some way the hook_up method can programmatically determine the class from which it was called?

Answer 1

Joshua has already given you a great list of alternatives, but to answer your question: You can’t change the superclass of a class after the class has been created in ruby. That’s simply not possible.