Keyword Arguments of Ruby makes code more clear

#ruby #cleancode

In this video the speaker demoed the pros of KWArgs.

In the pic, upper code is obviously more clear.

So when should you use it? I think, when it's hard to identify the params you should use KWArgs.

The usage is simple:

def foo(bar:, baz:)
end


foo(bar: 1, baz: 2)

Do you think so?

Oldest comments (6)

Burdette Lamar • Dec 26 '18

Seems right as shown, but perhaps only for .new?

For any other method:

If the parameters are related, could they form a class and be passed as an object?
If not, does the method lack a unified purpose?

chenge • Dec 26 '18

Right, better params no more than 3. If more than 3 maybe should use hash or object.

Edison Yap • Dec 27 '18 • Edited

Didn't watch the video, but what I find interesting is that keyword arguments did not exist until Ruby 2.0, which means before Ruby 2.0, there's a totally different way to do hack it, and you'll sometimes see this in the wild :) (I've encountered this in Rails' DateTime library)


# Ruby 2.0
def method(first:, second:)
  puts "First: #{first}, Second: #{second}"
end

# Ruby 1.9
def method(options={})
  first = options.fetch(:first)
  second = options.fetch(:second)
  puts "First: #{first}, Second: #{second}"
end