Alias method in ruby
Ruby classes provides a alias_method that can be used to reuse the existing methods.
Consider a situation where you need different methods which has same code and ONLY they have different names.

In this case alias_method uses suits best choice instead duplicating same code or writing common method that will get used in all methods, as i did before. Example, I have methods search, home, index all are doing same functionality.
Old approach # URL / def index list end # URL /search def search list end #URL /home def home list end private def list # code here end Correct approach in ruby def index # code here end alias_method :home, :index alias_method :search, :index Attributes aliasing in ruby
Same way one can easily rename existing class attribute names using alias_attribute method.
alias_attribute(new_name, old_name) alias_attrinute :username, :login More practical use
while deprecating attributes, methods in gems, plugins, extensions, libraries always use aliases in order to maintain backward compatibility.
Got easy ??
that's where ruby rocks !