ruby-on-railsrubyreformtrailblazer

What does double splat (**) argument mean in this code example and why use it?


So I've been over Traiblazer and Reform documentation and I often see this kind of code

class AlbumForm < Reform::Form
  collection :songs, populate_if_empty: :populate_songs! do
    property :name
  end

  def populate_songs!(fragment:, **)
    Song.find_by(name: fragment["name"]) or Song.new
  end
end

Notice the def populate_songs!(fragment:, **) definition?

I'm well aware of double splat named arguments (like **others) that capture all other keyword arguments. But I've never seen ** alone, without a name.

So my 2 questions are:

  1. what does ** mean in the block above?
  2. why use this syntax?

Solution

  • what does ** mean in the block above?

    It's a kwsplat, but it's not assigned a name. So this method will accept arbitrary set of keyword arguments and ignore all but :fragment.

    why use this syntax?

    To ignore arguments you're not interested in.


    A little demo

    class Person
      attr_reader :name, :age
    
      def initialize(name:, age:)
        @name = name
        @age = age
      end
    
      def description
        "name: #{name}, age: #{age}"
      end
    end
    
    class Rapper < Person
      def initialize(name:, **)
        name = "Lil #{name}" # amend one argument
        super # send name and the rest (however many there are) to super
      end
    end
    
    Person.new(name: 'John', age: 25).description # => "name: John, age: 25"
    Rapper.new(name: 'John', age: 25).description # => "name: Lil John, age: 25"