Constantize tries to find a declared constant with the name specified in the string. It raises a NameError when the name is not in CamelCase or is not initialized.

Examples

"Module".constantize #=> Module
"Class".constantize #=> Class

Source Code

# File active_support/inflector.rb, line 252
def constantize(camel_cased_word)
  unless /\A(?:::)?([A-Z]\w*(?:::[A-Z]\w*)*)\z/ =~ camel_cased_word
    raise NameError, "#{camel_cased_word.inspect} is not a valid constant name!"
  end

  Object.module_eval("::#{$1}", __FILE__, __LINE__)
end