method

constantize

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What's this?

constantize(camel_cased_word) public

Tries to find a constant with the name specified in the argument string:

  "Module".constantize     # => Module
  "Test::Unit".constantize # => Test::Unit

The name is assumed to be the one of a top-level constant, no matter whether it starts with "::" or not. No lexical context is taken into account:

  C = 'outside'
  module M
    C = 'inside'
    C               # => 'inside'
    "C".constantize # => 'outside', same as ::C
  end

NameError is raised when the name is not in CamelCase or the constant is unknown.

Show source

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/inflector.rb, line 278
  def constantize(camel_cased_word)
    unless /\A(?:::)?([A-Z]\w*(?:::[A-Z]\w*)*)\z/ =~ camel_cased_word
      raise NameError, "#{camel_cased_word.inspect} is not a valid constant name!"
    end

    Object.module_eval("::#{$1}", __FILE__, __LINE__)
  end

September 24, 2009 - (>= v2.2.1)

2 thanks

This method has been moved

This method has been moved to ActiveSupport::Inflector#constantize

constantize

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This method has been moved