class << self idiom in Ruby

Question

What does class << self do in Ruby?

Answer 1

Usually, instance methods are global methods. That means they are available in all instances of the class on which they were defined. In contrast, a singleton method is implemented on a single object.

Ruby stores methods in classes and all methods must be associated with a class. The object on which a singleton method is defined is not a class (it is an instance of a class). If only classes can store methods, how can an object store a singleton method? When a singleton method is created, Ruby automatically creates an anonymous class to store that method. These anonymous classes are called metaclasses, also known as singleton classes or eigenclasses. The singleton method is associated with the metaclass which, in turn, is associated with the object on which the singleton method was defined.

If multiple singleton methods are defined within a single object, they are all stored in the same metaclass.

class Zen
end

z1 = Zen.new
z2 = Zen.new

class << z1
  def say_hello
    puts "Hello!"
  end
end

z1.say_hello    # Output: Hello!
z2.say_hello    # Output: NoMethodError: undefined method `say_hello'…

In the above example, class << z1 changes the current self to point to the metaclass of the z1 object; then, it defines the say_hello method within the metaclass.

Classes are also objects (instances of the built-in class called Class). Class methods are nothing more than singleton methods associated with a class object.

class Zabuton
  class << self
    def stuff
      puts "Stuffing zabuton…"
    end
  end
end

All objects may have metaclasses. That means classes can also have metaclasses. In the above example, class << self modifies self so it points to the metaclass of the Zabuton class. When a method is defined without an explicit receiver (the class/object on which the method will be defined), it is implicitly defined within the current scope, that is, the current value of self. Hence, the stuff method is defined within the metaclass of the Zabuton class. The above example is just another way to define a class method. IMHO, it's better to use the def self.my_new_clas_method syntax to define class methods, as it makes the code easier to understand. The above example was included so we understand what's happening when we come across the class << self syntax.

Additional info can be found at this post about Ruby Classes.