Question

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How to turn a string into a method call?

Currently I have a code that is doing something like this

def execute
  case @command
    when "sing"
      sing()
    when "ping"
      user_defined_ping()
    when "--help|-h|help"
      get_usage()      
end

I find the case pretty useless and huge and I had like to call the appropriate method just by using the variable @command. Something like:

def execute
 @command()
end

Offcourse I would not need and extra execute() method in this case.

Any suggestions on how I can acheive this ruby ?

Thanks!

Edit:
Added other method type for multiple strings. Not sure if that can also be handled in an elegant manner.

Answer 1

Check out send

send(@command) if respond_to?(@command)

The respond_to? ensures that self responds to this method before attempting to execute it

For the updated get_usage() part I would use something similar to this:

def execute
  case @command
  when '--help', '-h', 'help'
    get_usage()
  # more possibilities
  else
    if respond_to?(@command)
      send(@command)
    else
      puts "Unknown command ..."
    end
  end
end