How does this ruby function return anything?

Question

I am working with legacy ruby code and I don't understand how this works. The fnction is:

    def determine_caller(host)
      if host["name"] =~ /special/
        method(:call_special)
      else
        method(:call_normal)
      end
    end

later on the method is called:

caller = determine_caller(host_name)

The program eventually then uses caller as a variable as it runs a method in another class. call_special and call_normal are methods later on in the program.

I believe this is defining a method to send to another method so it can later call the method as needed (either call_special or call_normal), but I don't understand how determin_caller returns anything. I thought the method keyword invoked the method itself, but that can't be right, at least how I understand the program I am looking at.

Answer 1

The simple answer, without going into ruby object model or anything, is that the last statement in a method is always returned. So if the callers name is special than return what ever value is returned when the method 'method' is called with those parameters

Answer 2

The Object#method method returns a Method. It doesn't call anything. (If it did, method would be an incredibly awful name for what it did.)

BTW: method is not a keyword and determine_caller is not a function. They are both methods.