Private module methods in Ruby

Question

I have a two part question

Best-Practice

• I have an algorithm that performs some operation on a data structure using the public interfa

Answer 1

Make a private module or class

Constants are never private. However, it's possible to create a module or class without assigning it to a constant.

So an alternative to :private_class_method is to create a private module or class and define public methods on it.

module PublicModule
  def self.do_stuff(input)
    @private_implementation.do_stuff(input)
  end

  @private_implementation = Module.new do
    def self.do_stuff(input)
      input.upcase # or call other methods on module
    end
  end
end

Usage:

PublicModule.do_stuff("whatever") # => "WHATEVER"

See the docs for Module.new and Class.new.