Question

Is there a method in Rails that converts a symbol to a constant? I want to be able to do something like

:monkey.to_constant #=> Monkey 

At the moment I have to do

:monkey.to_s.camelize.constantize 

which is a bit of a mouthful.

Answer 1

class Symbol   def to_c     self.to_s.camelize.constantize   end end  :monkey.to_c 

Updated for Rails >= 4

As of Rails >= 4 .classify is better to use than .camelize

# .camelize with singular and plural symbols/strings :user.to_s.camelize.constantize # => User :users.to_s.camelize.constantize # => NameError: uninitialized constant Users  # .classify with singular and plural symbols/strings :user.to_s.classify.constantize # => User :users.to_s.classify.constantize # => User