From 676038e9922d45c8c56d188e1e1b0cf87c73f80d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 16:54:43 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Add Create A Module Of Utility Functions as a Ruby TIL

---
 README.md                                    |  3 +-
 ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md | 59 ++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4bae849..b3ec7e0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://visualmode.kit.com/newsletter).
 
-_1708 TILs and counting..._
+_1709 TILs and counting..._
 
 See some of the other learning resources I work on:
 
@@ -1362,6 +1362,7 @@ If you've learned something here, support my efforts writing daily TILs by
 - [Create A Hash From An Array Of Arrays](ruby/create-a-hash-from-an-array-of-arrays.md)
 - [Create Listing Of All Middleman Pages](ruby/create-listing-of-all-middleman-pages.md)
 - [Create Mock Class That Can Be Overridden](ruby/create-mock-class-that-can-be-overridden.md)
+- [Create A Module Of Utility Functions](ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md)
 - [Create Named Structs With Struct.new](ruby/create-named-structs-with-struct-new.md)
 - [Create Thumbnail Image For A PDF](ruby/create-thumbnail-image-for-a-pdf.md)
 - [Decompose Unicode Character With Diacritic Mark](ruby/decompose-unicode-character-with-diacritic-mark.md)
diff --git a/ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md b/ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63aab81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ruby/create-a-module-of-utility-functions.md
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Create A Module Of Utility Functions
+
+In my [latest blog post](https://www.visualmode.dev/create-a-module-of-utility-functions-in-ruby),
+I went into full detail about how the [`Module#module_function` method](https://ruby-doc.org/3.4.1/Module.html#method-i-module_function) works.
+It creates both a module of utility functions that we can access directly on
+that module like we would with `self` methods. It can also be included in a
+class as a way of sharing copies of those utility functions with the class. A
+key point to them being copies is that they can then be overridden by the
+including class.
+
+Here is the example I used in the blog post:
+
+```ruby
+module MarkdownHelpers
+  module_function
+
+  def heading(text, level = 1)
+    ("#" * level) + " #{text}"
+  end
+
+  def link(text, href)
+    "[#{text}](#{href})"
+  end
+
+  def image(alt_text, href)
+    "!#{link(alt_text, href)}"
+  end
+end
+```
+
+I won't cover everything that the blog post covers, but what I found really nice
+about this pattern is that I can call those utility functions directly with the
+module as the receiver:
+
+```bash
+$ ruby -r ./markdown_helpers.rb -e 'puts MarkdownHelpers.link("Click here", "https://example.com")'
+[Click here](https://example.com)
+```
+
+The alternative to this generally looks like:
+
+```ruby
+module MarkdownHelpers
+  def self.heading(text, level = 1)
+    ("#" * level) + " #{text}"
+  end
+
+  def self.link(text, href)
+    "[#{text}](#{href})"
+  end
+
+  def self.image(alt_text, href)
+    "!#{link(alt_text, href)}"
+  end
+end
+```
+
+That would be fine, but we completely lose out on the ability to include it as a
+mix-in with other classes.