Issue #21000 has been updated by Dan0042 (Daniel DeLorme). After some further thought, I believe the fourth idea could work if autoload constants simply returned "constant". Because if a constant isn’t yet autoloaded, no objects of that type can exist. To recap: ```ruby defined?(NothingHere) #=> nil N = nil defined?(N) #=> "constant" XYZ = Class.new defined?(XYZ) #=> XYZ autoload :Foo, "foo" defined?(Foo) #=> "constant" ``` With this approach, we’re back to only a small incompatibility. I describe it as "small" because `defined?` is almost always used as a boolean condition. I've only found 1 gem that uses the return value of `defined?` beyond checking its truthiness, and even then, it's for "method", not "constant" oj-3.13.14/test/helper.rb 22:if defined?(GC.verify_compaction_references) == 'method' oj-3.13.14/test/json_gem/test_helper.rb 18: if defined?(GC.verify_compaction_references) == 'method' ---------------------------------------- Feature #21000: A way to avoid loading constant required by a type check https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21000#change-111334 * Author: Dan0042 (Daniel DeLorme) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- There is this pattern I encounter sometimes: ```ruby if defined?(NameSpace::ClassName) and obj.is_a?(NameSpace::ClassName) ``` Searching in gems, the pattern is fairly common: https://pastebin.com/VGfjRWNu I would like a way to avoid the repetition of `NameSpace::ClassName` above. I can think of a number of ways to approach the issue, each with different tradeoffs... ### Pattern match ignores uninitialized constant Pattern match like `obj in XYZ` could return false if XYZ is not defined. The danger here is that a typo could go undetected and just silently ignore the error even when the constants is expected to be defined. ### Pattern match has special syntax to ignore uninitialized constant Pattern match such as `obj in XYZ?` (or some other syntax) could return false if XYZ is not defined. The downside is that we're adding yet more new syntax. But it could be `obj in defined?(XYZ)` and then it doesn't really feel like new syntax. ### Do not autoload constants required by pattern match If we have `autoload :XYZ, "xyz"` then `obj in XYZ` could skip the autoload and return false. There is a possibility that `XYZ` might be defined as a regexp or other matcher that return true, but in general autoload is only used for classes/modules. And if the class/module is not yet loaded, obviously an object of that type cannot exist so we can avoid loading it. But this would only work for autoloaded constants, so can't be used to check a library that might not be loaded, ex: `obj in ActiveRecord::Base` ### defined?(mod) returns mod if it's a class/module If XYZ is a module, `defined?(XYZ)` could return XYZ instead of returning "constant". So it can be used in expressions like ```ruby case obj when nil when defined?(XYZ) ``` ```ruby if obj and defined?(XYZ) === obj ``` ```ruby if defined?(Gem::Specification)&.respond_to?(:each) ``` Very versatile, with the downside that it's a small backward incompatibiliy. -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/