Method: ActiveSupport::Inflector#constantize

Defined in:
lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb

#constantize(camel_cased_word) ⇒ Object

Tries to find a constant with the name specified in the argument string.

'Module'.constantize     # => Module
'Test::Unit'.constantize # => Test::Unit

The name is assumed to be the one of a top-level constant, no matter whether it starts with “::” or not. No lexical context is taken into account:

C = 'outside'
module M
  C = 'inside'
  C               # => 'inside'
  'C'.constantize # => 'outside', same as ::C
end

NameError is raised when the name is not in CamelCase or the constant is unknown.



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 250

def constantize(camel_cased_word)
  names = camel_cased_word.split('::')

  # Trigger a built-in NameError exception including the ill-formed constant in the message.
  Object.const_get(camel_cased_word) if names.empty?

  # Remove the first blank element in case of '::ClassName' notation.
  names.shift if names.size > 1 && names.first.empty?

  names.inject(Object) do |constant, name|
    if constant == Object
      constant.const_get(name)
    else
      candidate = constant.const_get(name)
      next candidate if constant.const_defined?(name, false)
      next candidate unless Object.const_defined?(name)

      # Go down the ancestors to check if it is owned directly. The check
      # stops when we reach Object or the end of ancestors tree.
      constant = constant.ancestors.inject do |const, ancestor|
        break const    if ancestor == Object
        break ancestor if ancestor.const_defined?(name, false)
        const
      end

      # owner is in Object, so raise
      constant.const_get(name, false)
    end
  end
end