Struct
A Struct is a convenient way to bundle a number of attributes together, using accessor methods, without having to write an explicit class.
The Struct class generates new subclasses that hold a set of members and their values. For each member a reader and writer method is created similar to Module#attr_accessor.
Customer = Struct.new(:name, :address) do
def greeting
"Hello #{name}!"
end
end
dave = Customer.new("Dave", "123 Main")
dave.name #=> "Dave"
dave.greeting #=> "Hello Dave!"
See Struct::new for further examples of creating struct subclasses and instances.
In the method descriptions that follow, a “member” parameter refers to a struct member which is either a quoted string ("name") or a Symbol (:name).
OpenStruct
Part of standard library. You need to require 'ostruct' before using.
An OpenStruct is a data structure, similar to a Hash, that allows the definition of arbitrary attributes with their accompanying values. This is accomplished by using Ruby’s metaprogramming to define methods on the class itself.
Examples
require "ostruct"
person = OpenStruct.new
person.name = "John Smith"
person.age = 70
person.name # => "John Smith"
person.age # => 70
person.address # => nil
An OpenStruct employs a Hash internally to store the attributes and values and can even be initialized with one:
australia = OpenStruct.new(:country => "Australia", :capital => "Canberra")
# => #<OpenStruct country="Australia", capital="Canberra">
Hash keys with spaces or characters that could normally not be used for method calls (e.g. ()[]*) will not be immediately available on the OpenStruct object as a method for retrieval or assignment, but can still be reached through the Object#send method.
measurements = OpenStruct.new("length (in inches)" => 24)
measurements.send("length (in inches)") # => 24
message = OpenStruct.new(:queued? => true)
message.queued? # => true
message.send("queued?=", false)
message.queued? # => false
Removing the presence of an attribute requires the execution of the delete_field method as setting the property value to nil will not remove the attribute.
first_pet = OpenStruct.new(:name => "Rowdy", :owner => "John Smith")
second_pet = OpenStruct.new(:name => "Rowdy")
first_pet.owner = nil
first_pet # => #<OpenStruct name="Rowdy", owner=nil>
first_pet == second_pet # => false
first_pet.delete_field(:owner)
first_pet # => #<OpenStruct name="Rowdy">
first_pet == second_pet # => true
Implementation
An OpenStruct utilizes Ruby’s method lookup structure to find and define the necessary methods for properties. This is accomplished through the methods method_missing and define_singleton_method.
This should be a consideration if there is a concern about the performance of the objects that are created, as there is much more overhead in the setting of these properties compared to using a Hash or a Struct.