Overriding Assignment

Is it possible to override the assignment operator?

I tried “def operator=”, and while the compiler seems to accept the
syntax, my method is not called at run time :frowning:

Thanks in advance…

What would be the receiver?

Variables aren’t objects, so they can’t have methods.
Variables merely point to objects.

You can define methods with names that end in equals signs, if you
want.

If you do that at the outer scope (i.e. as a private method in
Object), it might look like you’ve overridden assignment:

def xyz=(something)
p something
end

xyz = 123

But, of course, there’s no variable named xyz.

···

On Friday 02 August 2002 01:55 pm, Reginald Braithwaite-Lee wrote:

Is it possible to override the assignment operator?

I tried “def operator=”, and while the compiler seems to accept the
syntax, my method is not called at run time :frowning:


Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE

It works, but you’re just not calling it the right way (though this is
probably not what you wanted):

class A
def operator=(something)
p “here i am #{something}”
end
end

a = A.new
a.operator = 123

···

On Friday 02 August 2002 01:55 pm, Reginald Braithwaite-Lee wrote:

I tried “def operator=”, and while the compiler seems to accept the
syntax, my method is not called at run time :frowning:


Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE

Ned Konz ned@bike-nomad.com wrote in message news:200208021420.20760@ned.bike-nomad.com

···

On Friday 02 August 2002 01:55 pm, Reginald Braithwaite-Lee wrote:

I tried “def operator=”, and while the compiler seems to accept the
syntax, my method is not called at run time :frowning:

It works, but you’re just not calling it the right way (though this is
probably not what you wanted):

class A
def operator=(something)
p “here i am #{something}”
end
end

a = A.new
a.operator = 123

Thanks for your help. As you guessed, that wasn’t what I wanted,
because I wanted special behaviour that would always work when
assignment was made.

Oh well.