Question

I’m writing a ruby method that takes a string input but I don’t want to type the quotes.

For example:

def noquotes(input)
  puts input
end

noquotes('12Dec11Bel01')  # --->  12Dec11Bel01

noquotes(12Dec11Bel01)  # --->  Currently yields an error

What I’d like to be able to do is enter the method input without the quotes (second example) and still get the right result. I tried using .to_str to ensure the input was treated as a string, but it didn’t work.

Answer 1

Hehe, sorry, but you can’t mangle with the syntax tree in Ruby. If you don’t make quotes, it will be parsed as a variable or method call.

What you can do is

def method_missing(meth, *args)
  meth.to_s
end

but use that wisely and with scoping, as in

class DSL # You'd use that here
  def dsl(&block)
    instance_eval(block)
  end
  def method_missing(meth, *args)
    meth.to_s
  end
  def noquotes(input)
    puts input
  end
end

def dsl(&block)
  DSL.new.dsl(&block)
end

dsl do
  noquotes(foobar)
end

Use with caution and only if you know what you’re doing! And only in DSL. And not even there. Really. Don’t do it.