`Object#default_to_s`

Classes usually override Object#to_s to provide nice string representations, but what if you really want the default to_s? Here’s what you can do:

class Object
  alias_method(:default_to_s, :to_s)
end

Demo

1.default_to_s          # => "#<Fixnum:0x3>" 
"Tjo".default_to_s      # => "#<String:0xb7e376c0>" 
Object.new.default_to_s # => "#<Object:0xb7e2fd44>"

Compare the above with this:

1.to_s          # => "1" 
"Tjo".to_s      # => "Tjo" 
Object.new.to_s # => "#<Object:0xb7e2fd44>"

Another Way…

class Object
  def default_to_s
    Object.instance_method(:to_s).bind(self).call
  end
end

Slightly cooler, no?