How to convert any method to infix operator in ruby

Question

In some language such as Haskell, it is possible to use any function taking two arguments as an infix operator.

I find this notation interesting and would like to ac

Answer 1

A bit late to the party but I've been toying around with it and you can use operator overloading to create Infix operators just like in python (but with a bit more work), the syntax becomes a |op| b, here's how:

First a quick and dirty copy-paste to play around with Infix:

class Infix def initialize*a,&b;raise'arguments size mismatch'if a.length<0||a.length>3;raise'both method and b passed'if a.length!=0&&b;raise'no arguments passed'if a.length==0&&!b;@m=a.length>0? a[0].class==Symbol ? method(a[0]):a[0]:b;if a.length==3;@c=a[1];@s=a[2]end end;def|o;if@c;o.class==Infix ? self:@m.(@s,o)else;raise'missing first operand'end end;def coerce o;[Infix.new(@m,true,o),self]end;def v o;Infix.new(@m,true,o)end end;[NilClass,FalseClass,TrueClass,Object,Array].each{|c|c.prepend Module.new{def|o;o.class==Infix ? o.v(self):super end}};def Infix*a,&b;Infix.new *a,&b end
#

Ok

Step 1: create the Infix class

class Infix
  def initialize *args, &block
    raise 'error: arguments size mismatch' if args.length < 0 or args.length > 3
    raise 'error: both method and block passed' if args.length != 0 and block
    raise 'error: no arguments passed' if args.length == 0 and not block
    @method = args.length > 0 ? args[0].class == Symbol ? method(args[0]) : args[0] : block
    if args.length == 3; @coerced = args[1]; @stored_operand = args[2] end
  end
  def | other
    if @coerced
      other.class == Infix ? self : @method.call(@stored_operand, other)
    else
      raise 'error: missing first operand'
    end
  end
  def coerce other
    [Infix.new(@method, true, other), self]
  end
  def convert other
    Infix.new(@method, true, other)
  end
end

Step 2: fix all the classes that don't have a | method and the three special cases (true, false, and nil) (note: you can add any class in here and it will probably work fine)

[ NilClass, FalseClass, TrueClass,
  Float, Symbol, String, Rational,
  Complex, Hash, Array, Range, Regexp
].each {|c| c.prepend Module.new {
  def | other
    other.class == Infix ? other.convert(self) : super
  end}}

Step 3: define your operators in one of 5 ways

# Lambda
pow = Infix.new -> (x, y) {x ** y}
# Block
mod = Infix.new {|x, y| x % y}
# Proc
avg = Infix.new Proc.new {|x, y| (x + y) / 2.0}
# Defining a method on the spot (the method stays)
pick = Infix.new def pick_method x, y
  [x, y][rand 2]
end
# Based on an existing method
def diff_method x, y
  (x - y).abs
end
diff = Infix.new :diff_method

Step 4: use them (spacing doesn't matter):

2 |pow| 3      # => 8
9|mod|4        # => 1
3| avg |6      # => 4.5
0 | pick | 1   # => 0 or 1 (randomly chosen)

You can even kinda sorta curry: (This only works with the first operand)

diff_from_3 = 3 |diff

diff_from_3| 2    # => 1
diff_from_3| 4    # => 1
diff_from_3| -3   # => 6

As a bonus, this little method allows you to define Infixes (or any object really) without using .new:

def Infix *args, &block
  Infix.new *args, &block
end

pow = Infix -> (x, y) {x ** y} # and so on

All that's left to do is wrap it up in a module

Hope this helped

P.S. You can muck about with the operators to have something like a <> b, a -op- b, a >op> b and a for directionality, a **op** b for precedence and any other combination you want but beware when using true, false and nil as the first operand with logical operators (|, &&, not, etc.) as they tend to return before the infix operator is called.

For example: false |equivalent_of_or| 5 # => true if you don't correct.

FINALLY, run this to check a bunch of cases of all the builtin classes as both the first and second operand:

# pp prints both inputs
pp = Infix -> (x, y) {"x: #{x}\ny: #{y}\n\n"}

[ true, false, nil, 0, 3, -5, 1.5, -3.7, :e, :'3%4s', 'to',
  /no/, /(?: [^A-g7-9]\s)(\w{2,3})*?/,
  Rational(3), Rational(-9.5), Complex(1), Complex(0.2, -4.6),
  {}, {e: 4, :u => 'h', 12 => [2, 3]},
  [], [5, 't', :o, 2.2, -Rational(3)], (1..2), (7...9)
].each {|i| puts i.class; puts i |pp| i}