Question

In my controller I have the following simplified code:

def index
  @dashboard_items = []
  DashItem = Struct.new(:name, :amount, :moderated)  # Error is here

  [:page, :post].each do |c|
    obj = c.to_s.capitalize.constantize
    @dashboard_items << DashItem.new(c.to_s, obj.count, obj.count_moderated)
  end
end

But Ruby gives the following error:

dynamic constant assignment (SyntaxError)

on the line marked above.

Which, AFAIK, means that the constant DashItem is already defined. Is this correct? And what to do about it?

Answer 1

The error explains what the problem is – you have a constant being assigned in a context that’s too dynamic – i.e. inside the index method.

The solution is to define it outside:

DashItem = Struct.new(:name, :amount, :moderated)
def index
  @dashboard_items = []
  ...