Module: ActiveSupport::Inflector

Extended by:
Inflector
Included in:
Inflector
Defined in:
lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb,
lib/active_support/inflector/inflections.rb,
lib/active_support/inflector/transliterate.rb

Overview

The Inflector transforms words from singular to plural, class names to table names, modularized class names to ones without, and class names to foreign keys. The default inflections for pluralization, singularization, and uncountable words are kept in inflections.rb.

The Rails core team has stated patches for the inflections library will not be accepted in order to avoid breaking legacy applications which may be relying on errant inflections. If you discover an incorrect inflection and require it for your application or wish to define rules for languages other than English, please correct or add them yourself (explained below).

Defined Under Namespace

Classes: Inflections

Instance Method Summary collapse

Instance Method Details

#camelize(term, uppercase_first_letter = true) ⇒ Object

Converts strings to UpperCamelCase. If the uppercase_first_letter parameter is set to false, then produces lowerCamelCase.

Also converts ‘/’ to ‘::’ which is useful for converting paths to namespaces.

camelize('active_model')                # => "ActiveModel"
camelize('active_model', false)         # => "activeModel"
camelize('active_model/errors')         # => "ActiveModel::Errors"
camelize('active_model/errors', false)  # => "activeModel::Errors"

As a rule of thumb you can think of camelize as the inverse of #underscore, though there are cases where that does not hold:

camelize(underscore('SSLError'))        # => "SslError"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 69

def camelize(term, uppercase_first_letter = true)
  string = term.to_s
  if uppercase_first_letter
    string = string.sub(/^[a-z\d]*/) { |match| inflections.acronyms[match] || match.capitalize }
  else
    string = string.sub(inflections.acronyms_camelize_regex) { |match| match.downcase }
  end
  string.gsub!(/(?:_|(\/))([a-z\d]*)/i) { "#{$1}#{inflections.acronyms[$2] || $2.capitalize}" }
  string.gsub!("/".freeze, "::".freeze)
  string
end

#classify(table_name) ⇒ Object

Creates a class name from a plural table name like Rails does for table names to models. Note that this returns a string and not a Class (To convert to an actual class follow classify with #constantize).

classify('ham_and_eggs') # => "HamAndEgg"
classify('posts')        # => "Post"

Singular names are not handled correctly:

classify('calculus')     # => "Calculus"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 201

def classify(table_name)
  # strip out any leading schema name
  camelize(singularize(table_name.to_s.sub(/.*\./, "".freeze)))
end

#constantize(camel_cased_word) ⇒ Object

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

constantize('Module')   # => Module
constantize('Foo::Bar') # => Foo::Bar

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'
  constantize('C') # => '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 272

def constantize(camel_cased_word)
  names = camel_cased_word.split("::".freeze)

  # 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(constant) 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

#dasherize(underscored_word) ⇒ Object

Replaces underscores with dashes in the string.

dasherize('puni_puni') # => "puni-puni"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 209

def dasherize(underscored_word)
  underscored_word.tr("_".freeze, "-".freeze)
end

#deconstantize(path) ⇒ Object

Removes the rightmost segment from the constant expression in the string.

deconstantize('Net::HTTP')   # => "Net"
deconstantize('::Net::HTTP') # => "::Net"
deconstantize('String')      # => ""
deconstantize('::String')    # => ""
deconstantize('')            # => ""

See also #demodulize.



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 239

def deconstantize(path)
  path.to_s[0, path.rindex("::") || 0] # implementation based on the one in facets' Module#spacename
end

#demodulize(path) ⇒ Object

Removes the module part from the expression in the string.

demodulize('ActiveSupport::Inflector::Inflections') # => "Inflections"
demodulize('Inflections')                           # => "Inflections"
demodulize('::Inflections')                         # => "Inflections"
demodulize('')                                      # => ""

See also #deconstantize.



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 221

def demodulize(path)
  path = path.to_s
  if i = path.rindex("::")
    path[(i + 2)..-1]
  else
    path
  end
end

#foreign_key(class_name, separate_class_name_and_id_with_underscore = true) ⇒ Object

Creates a foreign key name from a class name. separate_class_name_and_id_with_underscore sets whether the method should put ‘_’ between the name and ‘id’.

foreign_key('Message')        # => "message_id"
foreign_key('Message', false) # => "messageid"
foreign_key('Admin::Post')    # => "post_id"



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

def foreign_key(class_name, separate_class_name_and_id_with_underscore = true)
  underscore(demodulize(class_name)) + (separate_class_name_and_id_with_underscore ? "_id" : "id")
end

#humanize(lower_case_and_underscored_word, capitalize: true, keep_id_suffix: false) ⇒ Object

Tweaks an attribute name for display to end users.

Specifically, performs these transformations:

  • Applies human inflection rules to the argument.

  • Deletes leading underscores, if any.

  • Removes a “_id” suffix if present.

  • Replaces underscores with spaces, if any.

  • Downcases all words except acronyms.

  • Capitalizes the first word.

The capitalization of the first word can be turned off by setting the :capitalize option to false (default is true).

The trailing ‘_id’ can be kept and capitalized by setting the optional parameter keep_id_suffix to true (default is false).

humanize('employee_salary')                  # => "Employee salary"
humanize('author_id')                        # => "Author"
humanize('author_id', capitalize: false)     # => "author"
humanize('_id')                              # => "Id"
humanize('author_id', keep_id_suffix: true)  # => "Author Id"

If “SSL” was defined to be an acronym:

humanize('ssl_error') # => "SSL error"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 129

def humanize(lower_case_and_underscored_word, capitalize: true, keep_id_suffix: false)
  result = lower_case_and_underscored_word.to_s.dup

  inflections.humans.each { |(rule, replacement)| break if result.sub!(rule, replacement) }

  result.sub!(/\A_+/, "".freeze)
  unless keep_id_suffix
    result.sub!(/_id\z/, "".freeze)
  end
  result.tr!("_".freeze, " ".freeze)

  result.gsub!(/([a-z\d]*)/i) do |match|
    "#{inflections.acronyms[match.downcase] || match.downcase}"
  end

  if capitalize
    result.sub!(/\A\w/) { |match| match.upcase }
  end

  result
end

#inflections(locale = :en) ⇒ Object

Yields a singleton instance of Inflector::Inflections so you can specify additional inflector rules. If passed an optional locale, rules for other languages can be specified. If not specified, defaults to :en. Only rules for English are provided.

ActiveSupport::Inflector.inflections(:en) do |inflect|
  inflect.uncountable 'rails'
end



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/inflections.rb', line 252

def inflections(locale = :en)
  if block_given?
    yield Inflections.instance(locale)
  else
    Inflections.instance(locale)
  end
end

#ordinal(number) ⇒ Object

Returns the suffix that should be added to a number to denote the position in an ordered sequence such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.

ordinal(1)     # => "st"
ordinal(2)     # => "nd"
ordinal(1002)  # => "nd"
ordinal(1003)  # => "rd"
ordinal(-11)   # => "th"
ordinal(-1021) # => "st"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 345

def ordinal(number)
  abs_number = number.to_i.abs

  if (11..13).include?(abs_number % 100)
    "th"
  else
    case abs_number % 10
    when 1; "st"
    when 2; "nd"
    when 3; "rd"
    else    "th"
    end
  end
end

#ordinalize(number) ⇒ Object

Turns a number into an ordinal string used to denote the position in an ordered sequence such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.

ordinalize(1)     # => "1st"
ordinalize(2)     # => "2nd"
ordinalize(1002)  # => "1002nd"
ordinalize(1003)  # => "1003rd"
ordinalize(-11)   # => "-11th"
ordinalize(-1021) # => "-1021st"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 369

def ordinalize(number)
  "#{number}#{ordinal(number)}"
end

#parameterize(string, separator: "-", preserve_case: false) ⇒ Object

Replaces special characters in a string so that it may be used as part of a ‘pretty’ URL.

parameterize("Donald E. Knuth") # => "donald-e-knuth"
parameterize("^très|Jolie-- ")  # => "tres-jolie"

To use a custom separator, override the separator argument.

parameterize("Donald E. Knuth", separator: '_') # => "donald_e_knuth"
parameterize("^très|Jolie__ ", separator: '_')  # => "tres_jolie"

To preserve the case of the characters in a string, use the preserve_case argument.

parameterize("Donald E. Knuth", preserve_case: true) # => "Donald-E-Knuth"
parameterize("^très|Jolie-- ", preserve_case: true) # => "tres-Jolie"

It preserves dashes and underscores unless they are used as separators:

parameterize("^très|Jolie__ ")                 # => "tres-jolie__"
parameterize("^très|Jolie-- ", separator: "_") # => "tres_jolie--"
parameterize("^très_Jolie-- ", separator: ".") # => "tres_jolie--"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/transliterate.rb', line 92

def parameterize(string, separator: "-", preserve_case: false)
  # Replace accented chars with their ASCII equivalents.
  parameterized_string = transliterate(string)

  # Turn unwanted chars into the separator.
  parameterized_string.gsub!(/[^a-z0-9\-_]+/i, separator)

  unless separator.nil? || separator.empty?
    if separator == "-".freeze
      re_duplicate_separator        = /-{2,}/
      re_leading_trailing_separator = /^-|-$/i
    else
      re_sep = Regexp.escape(separator)
      re_duplicate_separator        = /#{re_sep}{2,}/
      re_leading_trailing_separator = /^#{re_sep}|#{re_sep}$/i
    end
    # No more than one of the separator in a row.
    parameterized_string.gsub!(re_duplicate_separator, separator)
    # Remove leading/trailing separator.
    parameterized_string.gsub!(re_leading_trailing_separator, "".freeze)
  end

  parameterized_string.downcase! unless preserve_case
  parameterized_string
end

#pluralize(word, locale = :en) ⇒ Object

Returns the plural form of the word in the string.

If passed an optional locale parameter, the word will be pluralized using rules defined for that language. By default, this parameter is set to :en.

pluralize('post')             # => "posts"
pluralize('octopus')          # => "octopi"
pluralize('sheep')            # => "sheep"
pluralize('words')            # => "words"
pluralize('CamelOctopus')     # => "CamelOctopi"
pluralize('ley', :es)         # => "leyes"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 32

def pluralize(word, locale = :en)
  apply_inflections(word, inflections(locale).plurals, locale)
end

#safe_constantize(camel_cased_word) ⇒ Object

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

safe_constantize('Module')   # => Module
safe_constantize('Foo::Bar') # => Foo::Bar

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'
  safe_constantize('C') # => 'outside', same as ::C
end

nil is returned when the name is not in CamelCase or the constant (or part of it) is unknown.

safe_constantize('blargle')                  # => nil
safe_constantize('UnknownModule')            # => nil
safe_constantize('UnknownModule::Foo::Bar')  # => nil



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 325

def safe_constantize(camel_cased_word)
  constantize(camel_cased_word)
rescue NameError => e
  raise if e.name && !(camel_cased_word.to_s.split("::").include?(e.name.to_s) ||
    e.name.to_s == camel_cased_word.to_s)
rescue ArgumentError => e
  raise unless /not missing constant #{const_regexp(camel_cased_word)}!$/.match?(e.message)
rescue LoadError => e
  raise unless /Unable to autoload constant #{const_regexp(camel_cased_word)}/.match?(e.message)
end

#singularize(word, locale = :en) ⇒ Object

The reverse of #pluralize, returns the singular form of a word in a string.

If passed an optional locale parameter, the word will be singularized using rules defined for that language. By default, this parameter is set to :en.

singularize('posts')            # => "post"
singularize('octopi')           # => "octopus"
singularize('sheep')            # => "sheep"
singularize('word')             # => "word"
singularize('CamelOctopi')      # => "CamelOctopus"
singularize('leyes', :es)       # => "ley"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 49

def singularize(word, locale = :en)
  apply_inflections(word, inflections(locale).singulars, locale)
end

#tableize(class_name) ⇒ Object

Creates the name of a table like Rails does for models to table names. This method uses the #pluralize method on the last word in the string.

tableize('RawScaledScorer') # => "raw_scaled_scorers"
tableize('ham_and_egg')     # => "ham_and_eggs"
tableize('fancyCategory')   # => "fancy_categories"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 187

def tableize(class_name)
  pluralize(underscore(class_name))
end

#titleize(word, keep_id_suffix: false) ⇒ Object

Capitalizes all the words and replaces some characters in the string to create a nicer looking title. titleize is meant for creating pretty output. It is not used in the Rails internals.

The trailing ‘_id’,‘Id’.. can be kept and capitalized by setting the optional parameter keep_id_suffix to true. By default, this parameter is false.

titleize is also aliased as titlecase.

titleize('man from the boondocks')                       # => "Man From The Boondocks"
titleize('x-men: the last stand')                        # => "X Men: The Last Stand"
titleize('TheManWithoutAPast')                           # => "The Man Without A Past"
titleize('raiders_of_the_lost_ark')                      # => "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"
titleize('string_ending_with_id', keep_id_suffix: true)  # => "String Ending With Id"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 175

def titleize(word, keep_id_suffix: false)
  humanize(underscore(word), keep_id_suffix: keep_id_suffix).gsub(/\b(?<!\w['’`])[a-z]/) do |match|
    match.capitalize
  end
end

#transliterate(string, replacement = "?".freeze) ⇒ Object

Replaces non-ASCII characters with an ASCII approximation, or if none exists, a replacement character which defaults to “?”.

transliterate('Ærøskøbing')
# => "AEroskobing"

Default approximations are provided for Western/Latin characters, e.g, “ø”, “ñ”, “é”, “ß”, etc.

This method is I18n aware, so you can set up custom approximations for a locale. This can be useful, for example, to transliterate German’s “ü” and “ö” to “ue” and “oe”, or to add support for transliterating Russian to ASCII.

In order to make your custom transliterations available, you must set them as the i18n.transliterate.rule i18n key:

# Store the transliterations in locales/de.yml
i18n:
  transliterate:
    rule:
      ü: "ue"
      ö: "oe"

# Or set them using Ruby
I18n.backend.store_translations(:de, i18n: {
  transliterate: {
    rule: {
      'ü' => 'ue',
      'ö' => 'oe'
    }
  }
})

The value for i18n.transliterate.rule can be a simple Hash that maps characters to ASCII approximations as shown above, or, for more complex requirements, a Proc:

I18n.backend.store_translations(:de, i18n: {
  transliterate: {
    rule: ->(string) { MyTransliterator.transliterate(string) }
  }
})

Now you can have different transliterations for each locale:

I18n.locale = :en
transliterate('Jürgen')
# => "Jurgen"

I18n.locale = :de
transliterate('Jürgen')
# => "Juergen"

Raises:

  • (ArgumentError) 


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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/transliterate.rb', line 61

def transliterate(string, replacement = "?".freeze)
  raise ArgumentError, "Can only transliterate strings. Received #{string.class.name}" unless string.is_a?(String)

  I18n.transliterate(
    ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Unicode.normalize(
      ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Unicode.tidy_bytes(string), :c),
    replacement: replacement)
end

#underscore(camel_cased_word) ⇒ Object

Makes an underscored, lowercase form from the expression in the string.

Changes ‘::’ to ‘/’ to convert namespaces to paths.

underscore('ActiveModel')         # => "active_model"
underscore('ActiveModel::Errors') # => "active_model/errors"

As a rule of thumb you can think of underscore as the inverse of #camelize, though there are cases where that does not hold:

camelize(underscore('SSLError'))  # => "SslError"



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 92

def underscore(camel_cased_word)
  return camel_cased_word unless /[A-Z-]|::/.match?(camel_cased_word)
  word = camel_cased_word.to_s.gsub("::".freeze, "/".freeze)
  word.gsub!(inflections.acronyms_underscore_regex) { "#{$1 && '_'.freeze }#{$2.downcase}" }
  word.gsub!(/([A-Z\d]+)([A-Z][a-z])/, '\1_\2'.freeze)
  word.gsub!(/([a-z\d])([A-Z])/, '\1_\2'.freeze)
  word.tr!("-".freeze, "_".freeze)
  word.downcase!
  word
end

#upcase_first(string) ⇒ Object

Converts just the first character to uppercase.

upcase_first('what a Lovely Day') # => "What a Lovely Day"
upcase_first('w')                 # => "W"
upcase_first('')                  # => ""



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# File 'lib/active_support/inflector/methods.rb', line 156

def upcase_first(string)
  string.length > 0 ? string[0].upcase.concat(string[1..-1]) : ""
end