From: 7stud -- Date: 2011-05-13T11:07:29+09:00 Subject: Re: where does the pure method defined when starting irb Brian Xue wrote in post #998397: > Thanks all for your kindly explanation. It really helps. Here's more: class Object private def greet puts 'hello' end end class B end puts Object.private_instance_methods.include?(:greet) puts B.private_instance_methods.include?(:greet) puts self.singleton_class.private_instance_methods.include?(:greet) not_inherited = false puts self.singleton_class.private_instance_methods(not_inherited).include?(:greet) --output:-- true true true false The lookup paths: Object ^ private :greet | | Class B ^ | | singleton class of b ^ | | b = B.new Object ^ private :greet | | singleton class of 'main' ^ | | main You really can't determine in which class a method is defined unless you call the *_methods() with false as the argument, which causes ruby to ignore inherited methods. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.