mguimas
Hello,
What are you using defoverridable and super for?
I have searched for uses of these features, in large projects like Ecto, Ecto_SQL and Hex.pm, and only Ecto_SQL makes use of defoverridable, but only at one place. In addition, there is no trace of super being used in these projects.
Are these features not of much use in FP (Functional Programming), or at least, in FP as implemented in Elixir / Erlang?
What do you think?
Thanks
Where Next?
Trending in Questions
Other Trending Topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #deployment
- #library
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ecto-query
- #blog-post
- #elixirconf-us
- #elixir-ls
- #ai
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #api
- #forms
- #hex
- #security
- #metaprogramming
Our Sponsors
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Error tracking, logs, uptime, and Just Enough APM. Built for developers.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Master modern tools, write cleaner code, and tackle real-world challenges.
The deployment platform built for Elixir: PaaS ease, VPS control.
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Showing Posts 1 to 3- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
david_ex
The only places I’ve personally seen them used is when macros define default function implementations that could be overridden. For example, GenServer defines default implementation of
handle_infoetc. (see elixir/lib/elixir/lib/gen_server.ex at v1.8.1 · elixir-lang/elixir · GitHub), but the using module can of course define its own version that would override it. I imagesuperis used mainly in those same cases.mguimas
So, in your own code you have not used them, but you see they being used to provide default implementations for behaviour callbacks, like the one you linked.
I wonder if that could not be also solved using dependency injection of the callback implementation to use
hauleth
Very rarely. IIRC the only situation where I have used
defoverridableso far isOpencensus.Pluglibrary where user can define function for creating span name if they need to. It could be solved by injectingmfa(), but I think this solution is a little bit clearer and simpler.