Ruby v1.6 Class and Library Reference: Proc

class Proc |
Parent: | Object
Version: | 1.6

### Index:

new [ ] arity call

`Proc` objects are blocks of code that have been bound to a set of local variables. Once bound, the code may be called in different contexts and still access those variables.

`def genTimes(factor)`
`return Proc.new {|n| n*factor }`
`end`
``
`times3 = genTimes(3)`
`times5 = genTimes(5)`
``
`times3.call(12)` | -> | `36`
`times5.call(5)` | -> | `25`
`times3.call(times5.call(4))` | -> | `60`

class methods
new | Proc.new [{ block } ] -> aProc
|  | Creates a new `Proc` object, bound to the current context. It may be called without a block only within a method with an attached block, in which case that block is converted to the `Proc` object.
`def procFrom`
`Proc.new`
`end`
`aProc = procFrom { "hello" }`
`aProc.call` | -> | `"hello"`

instance methods
[ ] | prc[ [params]* ] -> anObject
|  | Synonym for `Proc.call`.
arity | prc.arity -> anInteger
|  | Returns the number of arguments required by the block. If the block takes no arguments, returns -1. If it takes one argument, returns -2. Otherwise, returns a positive argument count unless the last argument is prefixed with *, in which case the argument count is negated. The number of required arguments is anInteger for positive values, and `(`anInteger`+1).abs` otherwise.
`Proc.new {||}.arity` | -> | `-1`
`Proc.new {|a|}.arity` | -> | `-2`
`Proc.new {|a,b|}.arity` | -> | `2`
`Proc.new {|a,b,c|}.arity` | -> | `3`
`Proc.new {|*a|}.arity` | -> | `-1`
`Proc.new {|a,*b|}.arity` | -> | `-2`
call | prc.call( [params]* ) -> anObject
|  | Invokes the block, setting the block's parameters to the values in params using the same rules as used by parallel assignment. Returns the value of the last expression evaluated in the block.
`aProc = Proc.new {|a, *b| b.collect {|i| i*a }}`
`aProc.call(9, 1, 2, 3)` | -> | `[9, 18, 27]`
`aProc[9, 1, 2, 3]` | -> | `[9, 18, 27]`

Extracted from the book "Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide"
Copyright © 2000 Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Released under the terms of the Open Publication License V1.0.
This reference is available for download.