From: Assaph Mehr <assaph@...>
Date: 2005-04-12T07:19:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Factory design


> In any case, I have an identifier on my log file that looks like
"2005-01-04
> 23:34:12 begin_phase".  If I see this, I want to create a "Phase"
object.  If
> it says "2005-01-04 23:52:16 begin_interruption", then I want to
create an
> interruption instead.

All class objects are kept as constants of Object. In fact when you
write a class name in your script Ruby treats it like any other
constant (starts with a capital letters) - it's just in Object name
space so every object can access it. Thus you can get them like any
other constant in your script:

c:\>irb
irb(main):001:0> class Phase; end
=> nil
irb(main):002:0> s = "2005-01-04 23:34:12 begin_phase"
=> "2005-01-04 23:34:12 begin_phase"
irb(main):003:0> klass_name = s.match(/begin_(\w+)/).captures[0] rescue
nil
=> "phase"
irb(main):006:0> klass = Object.const_get(klass_name.capitalize) if
klass_name
=> Phase
irb(main):007:0> o = klass.new
=> #<Phase:0x2d5f1b0>

As a further note, when you come to use the klass variable at runtime
remember that case statements use the #=== method which is slightly
different for Class objects - it tests if an object is an instance of
the the class:

case klass
  when Phase
   puts 'new phase'

  when Object
    puts 'something else'
end

Will print: 'something else'.
You need something like:

case klass.name
  when 'Phase'
   puts 'new phase'

  when 'Object'
    puts 'something else'
end

Which will print: 'new phase'.

HTH,
Assaph