# Monkey Patch **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 9, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/monkey-patch/162391 "2009-03-09T15:19:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dbc845/32.png) [@nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nike)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/monkey-patch/162391/1 "2009-03-09T15:19:25Z")
Pls explain what is meant by monkey patch & what is the difference betwwen nil and false ---
**Author:** ![nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dbc845/32.png) [@nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nike)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/monkey-patch/162391/2 "2009-03-09T18:19:17Z")
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 9:19 AM, Nike M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Pls explain what is meant by monkey patch & what is the difference > betwwen nil and false > **[Monkey patch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_patch)** > > Monkey patching is a technique used to dynamically update the behavior of a piece of code at run-time. A monkey patch (also spelled monkey-patch, MonkeyPatch) is a way to extend or modify the runtime code of dynamic languages (e.g. Smalltalk, JavaScript, Objective-C, Ruby, Perl, Python, Groovy, etc.) without altering the original source code. > The term monkey patch seems to have come from an earlier term, guerrilla patch, which referred to changing code sneakily – and possibly incompatibly with o... nil represents the absence of a value. false represents a negative boolean value. – Greg D. [http://destiney.com/](http://destiney.com/) ---
**Author:** ![nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dbc845/32.png) [@nike](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nike)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/monkey-patch/162391/3 "2009-03-09T19:50:55Z")
Nike M. wrote: > Pls explain what is meant by monkey patch & what is the difference > betwwen nil and false What did Google tell you about these topics?