How to redefine a Ruby constant without warning?

Question

I\'m running some Ruby code which evals a Ruby file every time its date changes. In the file, I have constant definitions, like

Tau = 2 * Pi

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Answer 1

Unless the values of the constants are pretty weird (i.e. you have constants set to nil or false), the best choice would be to use the conditional assignment operator: Tau ||= 2*Pi

This will set Tau to 2π if it is nil, false or undefined, and leave it alone otherwise.

Answer 2

If you want to redefine a value then don't use constants, use a global variable instead ($tau = 2 * Pi), but that's not a good practice too. You should make it an instance variable of a suitable class.

For the other case, Tau = 2 * Pi unless defined?(Tau) is perfectly alright and the most readable, therefore the most elegant solution.

Answer 3

Another approach, using $VERBOSE, to suppress warnings, is discussed here: http://mentalized.net/journal/2010/04/02/suppress_warnings_from_ruby/

Update 2020/5/6: In response to the comment that the link is now dead, I am pasting an example here from my old project, though I can't say whether and in what circumstances it is a good approach:

original_verbose = $VERBOSE
$VERBOSE = nil # suppress warnings
# do stuff that raises warnings you don't care about
$VERBOSE = original_verbose

Answer 4

The following module may do what you want. If not it may provide some pointers to your solution

module RemovableConstants

  def def_if_not_defined(const, value)
    self.class.const_set(const, value) unless self.class.const_defined?(const)
  end

  def redef_without_warning(const, value)
    self.class.send(:remove_const, const) if self.class.const_defined?(const)
    self.class.const_set(const, value)
  end
end

And as an example of using it

class A
  include RemovableConstants

  def initialize
    def_if_not_defined("Foo", "ABC")
    def_if_not_defined("Bar", "DEF")
  end

  def show_constants
    puts "Foo is #{Foo}"
    puts "Bar is #{Bar}"
  end

  def reload
    redef_without_warning("Foo", "GHI")
    redef_without_warning("Bar", "JKL")
  end

end

a = A.new
a.show_constants
a.reload
a.show_constants

Gives the following output

Foo is ABC
Bar is DEF
Foo is GHI
Bar is JKL

Forgive me if i've broken any ruby taboos here as I am still getting my head around some of the Module:Class:Eigenclass structure within Ruby