On Feb 23, 2006, at 9:37 AM, Michael Trier wrote:

> Just learning, but what's wrong with eval?  I do something like the
> following in order to convert from a string to an object of the type
> specified by the string:
>
> a = "MyClass"
> my_class = eval(a)
> my_class.to_s

eval() is a very powerful tool that we probably shouldn't use unless  
we absolutely need too.  What if the String contains typos or  
malicious code?  Also, it should be slower to compile and run some  
code that to just do a constant lookup.  Probably better to use the  
tools intended for the operation is all.

James Edward Gray II