A method to determine if an object responds to a message (e.g., a method call). In Active Resource, a Person object with a name attribute can answer true to my_person.respond_to?("name"), my_person.respond_to?("name="), and my_person.respond_to?("name?").

Source Code

# File active_resource/base.rb, line 789
def respond_to?(method, include_priv = false)
  method_name = method.to_s
  if attributes.nil?
    return super
  elsif attributes.has_key?(method_name)
    return true 
  elsif ['?','='].include?(method_name.last) && attributes.has_key?(method_name.first(-1))
    return true
  end
  # super must be called at the end of the method, because the inherited respond_to?
  # would return true for generated readers, even if the attribute wasn't present
  super
end