In Ruby, is there a way to 'override' a constant in a subclass so that inherited methods use the new constant instead of the old?

Question

In Ruby, is there a way to \'override\' a constant in a subclass in such a way that calling an inherited method from the subclass results in that method using the new consta

Answer 1

I've done this by simply redefining the constant in the subclass, and then referring to it in methods as self.class::CONST in instance methods and self::CONST in class methods. In your example:

class SuperClass
  CONST = "Hello, world!"
  def self.say_hello
    self::CONST
  end
end

class SubClass < SuperClass
  CONST = "Hello, Bob!"
end

SubClass.say_hello #=> "Hello, Bob!"