# Repond\_to? bug, really strange

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repond-to-bug-really-strange/151013>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 15, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repond-to-bug-really-strange/151013 "2008-10-15T22:33:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repond-to-bug-really-strange/151013/1 "2008-10-15T22:33:41Z")

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This is really strange:

> > User.send(:merge\_joins, “one”, “two”)  
> > =\> [“one”, “two”]
> 
> > User.respond\_to?(:merge\_joins)  
> > =\> false

Am I missing something here? Shouldn’t the respond\_to return true?

thanks for your help

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repond-to-bug-really-strange/151013/2 "2008-10-15T23:04:11Z")

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On Oct 15, 3:33 pm, Ben J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> ## thanks for your help
> 
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

If User is actually using method\_missing to handle the merge\_joins  
message, then respond\_to? won’t be able to see it.

Jeff

[purpleworkshops.com](http://purpleworkshops.com)

> **[Hey Daddio!](http://softiesonrails.com)**
>
> Home of Hey Daddio Software

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repond-to-bug-really-strange/151013/3 "2008-10-16T01:29:31Z")

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On 15 Oct 2008, at 21:33, Ben J. \<rails-mailing-list@andreas-  
[s.net](http://s.net)\> wrote:

> This is really strange:
> 
> > > User.send(:merge\_joins, “one”, “two”)  
> > > =\> [“one”, “two”]  
> > > User.respond\_to?(:merge\_joins)  
> > > =\> false
> 
> Am I missing something here? Shouldn’t the respond\_to return true?

By default respond\_to returns false if a method is private (such as  
merge\_joins) but send ignores privateness and protectedness

Fred