How can one set property values when initializing an object in Ruby?

Question

Given the following class:

class Test
  attr_accessor :name
end

When I create the object, I want to do the following:

t = Test         


        

Answer 1

If you don't want to override initialize then you'll have to move up the chain and override new. Here's an example:

class Foo
  attr_accessor :bar, :baz

  def self.new(*args, &block)
    allocate.tap do |instance|
      if args.last.is_a?(Hash)
        args.last.each_pair do |k,v|
          instance.send "#{k}=", v
        end
      else
        instance.send :initialize, *args
      end
    end
  end

  def initialize(*args)
    puts "initialize called with #{args}"
  end
end

If the last thing you pass in is a Hash it will bypass initialize and call the setters immediately. If you pass anything else in it will call initialize with those arguments.