Nice Enumerations for Ruby

Ruby’s built-in enumeration support, or the lack thereof, is somewhere in the C/C++-Age. An enum in Ruby is usually a class or module with various constants set to some values. Attempting to display the enum variables will result in their values being displayed, which have no use to the end user of the application.

module Permissions Read = 4 Write = 2 Execute = 1 end permissions = Permissions::Read | Permissions::Write puts permissions # Will output “6” - Altough correct, it won’t make any sense for a # computer-illiterate user.

Nice-Enum solves this problem by encapsulating the enum values inside an instance of their enclosing class and making the to_s method return the name of the constant. The above code translates to

class Permissions < Flags enum :Read, 4 enum :Write, 2 enum :Execute, 1 end permissions = Permissions::Read | Permissions::Write puts permissions.join(“ and ”) # Will output “Write and Read”.

Nice-Enum contains two classes: Enum and Flags. Instances of Flag will automatically figure out it’s components when or’d together and provides a different to_s method. Otherwise the classes are functionally identical.

Of course, an enum can use anything as it’s value type, not only integers. The value type must only provide a <=> operator.

Up-To-Date documentation is avaiable at rubydoc.info.

Installation

Using Rubygems:

gem install nice-enum

Manually:

git clone git://github.com/raphaelr/nice-enum cd nice-enum rake install

Usage

require “nice_enum”

Features

From Enums to Fixnums and back

Getting the underlying value from an enum instance is usually not neccessary because the Enumeration class will hand method calls automatically down to the underlying value:

puts Permissions::Execute.next # => 2; Will call 1.next

You can explicitly ask for the underlying value:

puts Permissions::Execute.value # => 1

The reverse has to be done explicitly, but it’s very easy:

puts Permissions.new(1) # => Execute puts Permissions.new(3) # => Execute | Write puts Permissions.new(80) # => 80

In the last example, the Permission instance is treated as a Permission with the name “80” and the value 80.

Auto-Values

Like in most languages with enum support, you don’t have to explicitly provide values for enumerations. Nice-Enum will create sequential Fixnums if you don’t specify them.

class Suit < Enum enum :Spades # Will become 0 enum :Hearts # Will become 1 enum :Diamonds # Will become 2 enum :Clubs # Will become 3 end

You can also mix explicit and implicit values together:

class Numbers < Enum enum :Zero enum :One enum :FourtyEight, 48 enum :FourtyNine end

Note that eventual gaps aren’t filled.

Iterating over values

Suit.each { |suit| puts suit } # Outputs: Spades # Hearts # Diamonds # Clubs

The Enum class also includes the Enumerable module so you can do stuff like:

Suit.map { |suit| suit.name.chop }.each { |suit| puts suit } # Outputs: Spade # Heart # Diamond # Club

Attributes

If that’s not nice enough for you, maybe this is: You can attach any number of attributes to enumerations. For example:

class Number < Enum enum :Zero, 0, :squared => 0 enum :One, 1, :note => “Average number of eyes per eyehole”, :squared => 1 enum :Five, 5, :note => “Number of digits per hand”, :squared => 25 end Number.each do |enum| puts “#enum is squared #enumenum.squared and is special because it is the #enumenum.note.” end # Outputs: Zero is squared 0 and is special because it is the nil. # One is squared 1 and is special because it is the Average number of eyes per eyehole. # Five is squared 25 and is special because it is the Number of digits per hand.

You can also provide default values for attributes:

class Number < Enum default :note => “number which is the same if multiplied with one” # … end # Outputs: Zero is squared 0 and is special because it is the number which is the same if multiplied with one. # One is squared 1 and is special because it is the Average number of eyes per eyehole. # Five is squared 25 and is special because it is the Number of digits per hand.

Instance methods

Since enum values are instances of their enclosing class, you can add methods to them:

class Number < Enum enum :Zero, 0 enum :One, 1 enum :Two, 2 def square value ** 2 end end numbers = Number.to_a numbers << Number.new(3) numbers.each { |number| puts “#number squared is #numbernumber.square.” } # Outputs: Zero squared is 0. # One squared is 1. # Two squared is 4. # 3 squared is 9.

License

Copyright © 2010, Raphael Robatsch All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  • Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  • Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

  • The names of the developers or contributors must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.