Best way to create a helper method

ruby-talk
1

What would you guys say is the best way of creating a helper method?

module MyModule
  def myMethod
    #bla bla
  end
end

def helperMethod
  #a helper method whose existence should not be known outside of this
file
end

helperMethod() shouldn't be visible from anywhere outside this file.

Thanks for helping me with this
  -Patrick

···

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2

Patrick Li wrote:

What would you guys say is the best way of creating a helper method?

module MyModule
  def myMethod
    #bla bla
  end
end

def helperMethod
  #a helper method whose existence should not be known outside of this
file
end

helperMethod() shouldn't be visible from anywhere outside this file.

Can you put helperMethod inside MyModule, and make it private? I don't know if the language supports that.

And you may want to consider unit tests as more important than static type checking, to keep a program on track...

···

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   Phlip

3

I can:

module MyModule
  def myMethod
    #bla bla
  end

  private
  def helperMethod
    #a helper method whose existence should not be known outside of this
file
  end
end

But I can still get access to helperMethod by mixing in the module.

eg.
class MyClass
  include MyModule #I want myMethod() but not helperMethod()
end

Thanks for replying
  -Patrick

···

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

4

But I can still get access to helperMethod by mixing in the module.

protected ?

5

Patrick Li wrote:

But I can still get access to helperMethod by mixing in the module.

Private methods are not a form of code security. Even if you made this method completely private, you can still get to it with .send(:helperMethod).

No language makes any private method absolutely private. You should think of privacy as nothing more than a warning - "please reconsider calling this method". Another common way to do that is move the method out of the default namespace by calling it _helperMethod.

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   Phlip