Ruby: Add a method to the class of an input parameter

Posted by TJB on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by TJB
Published on 2010-12-23T03:50:50Z Indexed on 2010/12/23 3:54 UTC
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I'm just exploring ruby and was wondering about the theoretical possibility of adding a method to the class of an object. For example, define a method that takes in a parameter and would add a method to the class of that parameter (not just to the parameter object itself). Something like this example:

class SomeClass
end

class AnotherClass
end

alpha = SomeClass.new
beta = AnotherClass.new

def AddHelloMethodTo param

 # This is where I'm trying to
 # add a method to the class of the parameter
 def param.class.Hello 
  "Hello"
 end

end

AddHelloMethodTo alpha
AddHelloMethodTo beta

gamma = AnotherClass.new

alpha.Hello
beta.Hello
gamma.Hello

(Excuse me if I have syntax errors / typos I'm REALLY new to this!)
Notice how I don't call the AddHelloMethodTo on gamma but I expect Hello to be defined because I added it to the class.
Is this possible?

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