How to Use instance_exec in Ruby on Rails

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2024-10-18 10:30:03

Ruby is known for its flexibility and powerful metaprogramming capabilities. One such method that often comes up in Ruby development, particularly in Ruby on Rails applications, is [instance_exec](https://ruby-doc.org/3.2.0/BasicObject.html#method-i-instance_exec). It allows developers to execute a block of code within the context of an object’s instance, making it extremely useful for dynamically executing code within objects without exposing unnecessary details or methods.

instance_exec is a Ruby method that belongs to the Object class, which means every Ruby object has access to it. Its primary role is to evaluate a given block in the context of an object’s instance. It takes a block and optional arguments, allowing the block to access instance variables and methods of the object it is executed within.

In the above example, we are using instance_exec to access the instance variables @a and @b from within the block passed to instance_exec. Normally, these variables would not be accessible from outside the class, but instance_exec gives us that control.

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