Borrando (Undefining) Métodos

Methods are defined with the def statement and may be undefined with the undef statement:

def sum(x,y); x+y; end      # Define a method
puts sum(1,2)               # Use it
undef sum                   # And undefine it

In this code, the def statement defines a global method, and undef undefines it. undef also works within classes to undefine the instance methods of the class. Interestingly, undef can be used to undefine inherited methods, without affecting the definition of the method in the class from which it is inherited. Suppose class A defines a method m, and class B is a subclass of A and therefore inherits m. If you don't want to allow instances of class B to be able to invoke m, you can use undef m within the body of the subclass.

undef is not a commonly used statement. In practice, it is much more common to redefine a method with a new def statement than it is to undefine or delete the method.

Note that the undef statement must be followed by a single identifier that specifies the method name. It cannot be used to undefine a singleton method in the way that def can be used to define such a method.

Within a class or module, you can also use undef_method (a private method of Module) to undefine methods. Pass a symbol representing the name of the method to be undefined.