From: Nat Pryce <nat.pryce@...13media.com>
Date: 2002-11-22T00:52:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Multiple constructors?

On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 15:06, christopher.j.meisenzahl@citicorp.com
wrote:
> I've seen how Ruby uses an initialize() method as a constructor.
> 
> Can this method be overloaded? After playing with IRB I'm assuming it can't

In Ruby there are actually *two* methods that act as a constructor, the
new method of the class and the initialize method of the object. The new
method allocates a new object and then calls initialize on it.

If you want to define multiple constructors, define multiple "new"
methods on your class and have those call different "initialize" methods
on the object.  

For example the following code will print:

"initialize 1"
"initialize 2"



class C
    def C.new_1()
        c = C.new()
        c.initialize_1()
        c
    end

    def C.new_2()
        c = C.new()
        c.initialize_2()
        c
    end

    def initialize_1()
        p "initialize 1"
    end
    
    def initialize_2()
        p "initialize 2"
    end
end

c1 = C.new_1()
c2 = C.new_2()


Cheers,
	Nat.
 
-- 
Nat Pryce <nat.pryce@b13media.com>
B13media