conditional chaining in ruby

Question

Is there a good way to chain methods conditionally in Ruby?

What I want to do functionally is

if a && b && c
 my_object.some_method_b         


        

Answer 1

Sample class to demonstrate chaining methods that return a copied instance without modifying the caller. This might be a lib required by your app.

class Foo
  attr_accessor :field
    def initialize
      @field=[]
    end
    def dup
      # Note: objects in @field aren't dup'ed!
      super.tap{|e| e.field=e.field.dup }
    end
    def a
      dup.tap{|e| e.field << :a }
    end
    def b
      dup.tap{|e| e.field << :b }
    end
    def c
      dup.tap{|e| e.field << :c }
    end
end

monkeypatch: this is what you want to add to your app to enable conditional chaining

class Object
  # passes self to block and returns result of block.
  # More cumbersome to call than #chain_if, but useful if you want to put
  # complex conditions in the block, or call a different method when your cond is false.
  def chain_block(&block)
    yield self
  end
  # passes self to block
  # bool:
  # if false, returns caller without executing block.
  # if true, return result of block.
  # Useful if your condition is simple, and you want to merely pass along the previous caller in the chain if false.
  def chain_if(bool, &block)
    bool ? yield(self) : self
  end
end

Sample usage

# sample usage: chain_block
>> cond_a, cond_b, cond_c = true, false, true
>> f.chain_block{|e| cond_a ? e.a : e }.chain_block{|e| cond_b ? e.b : e }.chain_block{|e| cond_c ? e.c : e }
=> #
# sample usage: chain_if
>> cond_a, cond_b, cond_c = false, true, false
>> f.chain_if(cond_a, &:a).chain_if(cond_b, &:b).chain_if(cond_c, &:c)
=> #

# The chain_if call can also allow args
>> obj.chain_if(cond) {|e| e.argified_method(args) }