How to use an overridden constant in an inheritanced class

class A  CONST = 'A'  def initialize    puts self.class::CONST  endendclass B < A  CONST = 'B'endA.new # => 'A'B.new # => 'B'

I had a few issues with the solution by Konstantin Haase. When accessing the constant in an instantiated object of the inheriting class, the parent constant was used.

I had to explicitly refer to the class.

self.class::CONST

cheers

Sorry I couldn't get the code formatting to work in a 'comment' only in an 'answer' but this is in response to akostadinov's question to Hendrik "how is this different from his [Konstantin's] answer?"

I'd guess Hendrik was trying to access the constant from methods in his inheriting class & that depends on if it's an instance or static method. It seems to behave as you'd expect in an instance method. But maybe or maybe not how you'd expect for a static method. Even if that's not what Hendrik meant, this may be worth noting:

If you have the exact class definitions as Konstantin, but you add a method to class A like this:

def self.print_const  puts CONSTend

Then you get A both times:

A.print_const # prints AB.print_const # prints A

However if you define the method in A by referencing the class:

def self.print_const  puts self::CONSTend

Then you get:

A.print_const # prints AB.print_const # prints B