From: Anurag Priyam <anurag08priyam@...>
Date: 2011-02-18T04:40:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby reflection - get method definition as a string

> Hi Folks - I am running some ruby tests and would like to print out
> the actual test to the console or store it to a file.  The tests are
> written as classes with a setup, run, and teardown method.
> So here's my question: is there a way to get the class definition or
> method definitions as a "string", so that I can print it out (to a
> file or console)?
> I know ruby supports a lot of reflection (like .methods
> or .constants), but I'm not seeing how to do this.

A very non-elegant, trivial way using Ruby's DATA stream ;) :

# test.rb
def foo
  puts "hi"
end

flag = nil
DATA.tap{|x| x.rewind}.readlines.each do |line|
  flag = true if line =~ /^def/
  puts line if flag
  flag = false if line =~ /^end/
end
__END__

$ ruby test.rb
def foo
  puts "hi"
end

Obviously you will have to come up with better heuristics to determine
the end of a method.

-- 
Anurag Priyam
http://about.me/yeban/