delegate(*methods) public

Provides a delegate class method to easily expose contained objects’ methods as your own. Pass one or more methods (specified as symbols or strings) and the name of the target object as the final :to option (also a symbol or string). At least one method and the :to option are required.

Delegation is particularly useful with Active Record associations: 

  class Greeter < ActiveRecord::Base
    def hello()   "hello"   end
    def goodbye() "goodbye" end
  end

  class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :greeter
    delegate :hello, :to => :greeter
  end

  Foo.new.hello   # => "hello"
  Foo.new.goodbye # => NoMethodError: undefined method `goodbye' for #<Foo:0x1af30c>

Multiple delegates to the same target are allowed: 

  class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :greeter
    delegate :hello, :goodbye, :to => :greeter
  end

  Foo.new.goodbye # => "goodbye"

Methods can be delegated to instance variables, class variables, or constants by providing them as a symbols: 

  class Foo
    CONSTANT_ARRAY = [0,1,2,3]
    @@class_array  = [4,5,6,7]

    def initialize
      @instance_array = [8,9,10,11]
    end
    delegate :sum, :to => :CONSTANT_ARRAY
    delegate :min, :to => :@@class_array
    delegate :max, :to => :@instance_array
  end

  Foo.new.sum # => 6
  Foo.new.min # => 4
  Foo.new.max # => 11
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