Provides a delegate class method to easily expose contained objects’ methods as your own. Pass one or more methods (specified as symbols or strings) and the name of the target object as the final :to option (also a symbol or string). At least one method and the :to option are required.

Delegation is particularly useful with Active Record associations:

class Greeter < ActiveRecord::Base
  def hello()   "hello"   end
  def goodbye() "goodbye" end
end

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :greeter
  delegate :hello, :to => :greeter
end

Foo.new.hello   # => "hello"
Foo.new.goodbye # => NoMethodError: undefined method `goodbye' for #<foo:0x1af30c>

Multiple delegates to the same target are allowed:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :greeter
  delegate :hello, :goodbye, :to => :greeter
end

Foo.new.goodbye # => "goodbye"

Methods can be delegated to instance variables, class variables, or constants by providing the variable as a symbol:

class Foo
  CONSTANT_ARRAY = [0,1,2,3]
  @@class_array  = [4,5,6,7]

  def initialize
    @instance_array = [8,9,10,11]
  end
  delegate :sum, :to => :CONSTANT_ARRAY
  delegate :min, :to => :@@class_array
  delegate :max, :to => :@instance_array
end

Foo.new.sum # => 6
Foo.new.min # => 4
Foo.new.max # => 11</foo:0x1af30c>

Source Code

# File active_support/core_ext/module/delegation.rb, line 48
def delegate(*methods)
  options = methods.pop
  unless options.is_a?(Hash) && to = options[:to]
    raise ArgumentError, "Delegation needs a target. Supply an options hash with a :to key as the last argument (e.g. delegate :hello, :to => :greeter)."
  end

  methods.each do |method|
    module_eval("def \#{method}(*args, &block)\n\#{to}.__send__(\#{method.inspect}, *args, &block)\nend\n", "(__DELEGATION__)", 1)
  end
end