How can I overwrite the def method? But it's strange, cause I don't know from where the def method is defined. It's not Module, not Object, not BasicObject (of Ruby 1.9). And def.class don't say nothing ;)
I would like to use something like:
sub_def hello
puts "Hello!"
super
end
def hello
puts "cruel world."
end
# ...and maybe it could print:
# => "Hello!"
# => "cruel world."
Many thanks, for any ideas.
Who told you def is a method? It's not. It's a keyword, like class, if, end, etc. So you cannot overwrite it, unless you want to write your own ruby interpreter.
You could use alias_method.
alias_method :orig_hello, :hello
def hello
puts "Hello!"
orig_hello
end
You can use blocks to do some similar things like this:
def hello
puts "Hello"
yield if block_given?
end
hello do
puts "cruel world"
end
As others have said, def isn't a method, it's a keyword. You can't "override" it. You can, however, define a method called "def" via Ruby metaprogramming magic:
define_method :def do
puts "this is a bad idea"
end
This still won't override the def keyword, but you can call your new method with method(:def).call.
So, there you (sort of) have it.
Note: I have no idea why you'd ever want to define a method called def. Don't do it.
