From: Daniel Kempkens <Daniel.Kempkens@...>
Date: 2007-06-16T00:15:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Dynamic Class Initialization

Peer Allan schrieb:
> Hi all,
> I know this can be done, but I can't find out how to do it.  I have a
> string with the name of the class that I want to initialize, but how do
> I do it?
> 
> This is what I tried,
> 
> class = "Product"
> product = class.new
> 
> Obviously this does not work or I wouldn't be asking :)  So, how do I do
> this?
> 
> Peer
> 
I suggest you use this method (out of Rails):

def constantize(camel_cased_word)
   unless /^(::)?([A-Z]\w*)(::[A-Z]\w*)*$/ =~ camel_cased_word
     raise NameError, "#{camel_cased_word.inspect} is not a valid 
constant name!"
   end

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

It's a bit more powerful than the built-in Ruby Version.