Reference the invoking object in the passed block

Question

Is there any way to get hold of the invoked object inside the block thats being called. For instance, is there any way for the blocks to get access to the scope of the method batman or the class SuperHeros

class SuperHeros

  attr_accessor :news

  def initialize
    @news = []
  end

  def batman task
    puts "Batman: #{task} - done"
    yield "feed cat"
    @news << task
  end

end

cat_woman = lambda do |task| 
  puts "Cat Woman: #{task} - done" 
  # invoker.news << task
end

robin = lambda do |task| 
  puts "Robin: #{task} - done"
  # invoker.news << task
end


characters = SuperHeros.new
characters.batman("kick Joker's ass", &cat_woman)
characters.batman("break Bane's bones", &robin)

Answer 1

The simplest way to get the receiver object inside a block is assigning the object to an instance variable.

This example illustrate more clearly how the lambdas cat_woman and robin can access to attributes of the receiver objects of blocks:

class SuperHeros
  attr_accessor :news, :name, :current_task

  def initialize(a_name)
    @name = a_name
    @news = []
  end

  def batman(task)
    puts "Inside the method batman of #{name}: #{task} in progress ..."
    @current_task = task
    yield
    @news << task
  end

end

cat_woman = lambda do |extra_task|
  puts "cat_woman even #{extra_task} before doing #{@caller_obj.current_task}"
  puts "Cat Woman: #{@caller_obj.current_task} - done by #{@caller_obj.name}"
  # invoker.news << task
end

robin = lambda do |extra_task|
  puts "robin even #{extra_task} before doing #{@caller_obj.current_task}"
  puts "Robin: #{@caller_obj.current_task} - done by #{@caller_obj.name}"
end


character_1 = SuperHeros.new('batman_1')
(@caller_obj = character_1).batman("kick Joker's ass") { cat_woman['eats some burger'] }

puts

character_2 = SuperHeros.new('batman_2')
(@caller_obj = character_2).batman("break Bane's bones") { robin['drinks some beer'] }

The output will be:

Inside the method batman of batman_1: kick Joker's ass in progress ...
cat_woman even eats some burger before doing kick Joker's ass
Cat Woman: kick Joker's ass - done by batman_1

Inside the method batman of batman_2: break Bane's bones in progress ...
robin even drinks some beer before doing break Bane's bones
Robin: break Bane's bones - done by batman_2

Answer 2

You can use something similar to Instance eval with delegation pattern, used - for example - in Savon gem:

def batman(task, &block)
  @original_self = eval('self', block.binding)
  puts "Batman: #{task} - done"
  instance_exec('feed cat', &block)
  @news << task
end

private

def method_missing(method, *args, &block)
  if @original_self
    @original_self.send(method, *args, &block)
  else
    super
  end
end

In this approach, when you call method (with implicit receiver) inside block passed into batman method, it's called in the context of SuperHeros instance. If there is no such method available, the call goes (through method_missing) to original block self.