# Could someone please explain what that "super" is?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/could-someone-please-explain-what-that-super-is/100262>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 2, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/could-someone-please-explain-what-that-super-is/100262 "2006-02-02T10:04:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rubyist](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rubyist](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyist)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/could-someone-please-explain-what-that-super-is/100262/1 "2006-02-02T10:04:50Z")

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Hi,

In order not to make an unnecessary crowd here, first I tried to learn  
it myself, but I failed.  
What is that “super” method? Could someone explain it please?

Thanks in advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rubyist](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rubyist](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyist)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/could-someone-please-explain-what-that-super-is/100262/2 "2006-02-02T10:41:24Z")

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On Thu, 2006-02-02 at 18:03 +0900, Rubyist wrote:

> What is that “super” method? Could someone explain it please?

# The ‘super’ commentary starts below. This is just a base-class.

class SomeClass  
def initialize(one, two, three)  
puts “Some: #{[one, two, three].inspect}”  
end

def ameth(one)  
“Some:ameth: #{one}”  
end  
end

# 1. When you override a method, you don’t ever have to consider the

# inherited method if you don’t want to.

class OtherClass \< SomeClass  
def initialize(\*args)  
puts “Other: #{args.inspect}”  
end  
end

# 2. Sometimes, though, you’ll want to invoke the inherited method,

# e.g. to make sure any initialization gets done. For this you

# use the ‘super’ keyword, which says 'invoke the inherited method

# of this name’. Without args, super passes this method’s arguments

# to the superclass method.

class FurtherClass \< SomeClass  
def initialize(\*args)  
super  
puts “Further: #{args.inspect}”  
end  
end

# 3. If you’re changing interfaces (with initialize) you might want to

# pass up different arguments, which you can do by passing them

# to super.

class LastClass \< SomeClass  
def initialize(a1,a2)  
puts “Last: #{[a1,a2].inspect}”  
super(a1,a2,3)  
end

# 3.5. You can of course get the result from super and massage it

# as you need to when overriding methods.

def ameth(one)  
s = super(‘ten’)  
“Last:ameth:#{s}”  
end  
end

# 4. You don’t _have_ to use super. This is mostly equivalent from

# the user point of view (don’t know about internally).

class Alternative \< SomeClass  
alias :\_\_old\_init :initialize  
def initialize(one,two)  
\_\_old\_init(one,two, 3)  
puts “Alternative: #{[one, two].inspect}”  
end  
end

SomeClass.new(1,2,3)

> > # =\> Some: [1, 2, 3]

OtherClass.new(1,2,3)

> > # =\> Other: [1, 2, 3]

FurtherClass.new(1,2,3)

> > # =\> Some: [1, 2, 3]
> > 
> > # =\> Further: [1, 2, 3]

l = LastClass.new(:one, :two)

> > # =\> Last: [:one, :two]
> > 
> > # =\> Some: [:one, :two, 3]

puts l.ameth(55)

> > # =\> Last:ameth:Some:ameth: ten

Alternative.new(10,20)

> > # =\> Some: [10, 20, 3]
> > 
> > # =\> Alternative: [10, 20]

There’s probably more stuff I forgot, but thats the basic gist of it.