ActiveSupport::StringInquirer is a class provided by Rails’ ActiveSupport module that can streamline your code and make it more readable. Let’s dive into what ActiveSupport::StringInquirer is and how it can improve your Ruby on Rails development experience.
What is ActiveSupport::StringInquirer?
ActiveSupport::StringInquirer is a simple yet powerful class that wraps a string, allowing you to query it with method-like syntax. This means you can treat strings as objects and perform boolean-like operations on them, making your code more expressive and easier to understand.
How Does it Work?
Instead of writing verbose if-else statements or using regular expression matches to check for specific string values, you can create an instance of ActiveSupport::StringInquirer and query it directly. Let’s see how this works.
Example: Checking User Status
Suppose you have a User model in your Rails application with a status attribute. Here’s how you can use ActiveSupport::StringInquirer to simplify your code:
1
2
3
4
5
6
# app/models/user.rb
class User < ApplicationRecord
def status
ActiveSupport::StringInquirer.new(super)
end
end
Now, in your controllers or views, you can use the status attribute of a User object as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
# app/controllers/users_controller.rb
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def show
@user = User.find(params[:id])
if @user.status.active?
# Do something for active users
else
# Do something for inactive users
end
end
end
Example: Handling User Roles
Let’s say you have a scenario where users have different roles, and you want to perform certain actions based on their role. Here’s how you can use ActiveSupport::StringInquirer for this:
1
2
3
4
5
6
# app/models/user.rb
class User < ApplicationRecord
def role
ActiveSupport::StringInquirer.new(super)
end
end
Now, in your controllers or views, you can use the role attribute of a User object as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
# app/controllers/users_controller.rb
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def show
@user = User.find(params[:id])
if @user.role.admin?
# Do something for admin users
elsif @user.role.editor?
# Do something for editor users
else
# Do something for regular users
end
end
end
As you can see from the examples above, using ActiveSupport::StringInquirer simplifies the code significantly. Instead of comparing strings directly, we can call the appropriate method on the status or role object, which makes the intention of the code clearer and more concise.