What is the difference between Ruby’s send and public_send methods?

Unlike send, public_send calls public methods only.

Source

Example:

class Klass
  private
  def private_method
    puts "Hello"
  end
end

k = Klass.new
k.send(:private_method)
# => "Hello"

k.public_send(:private_method)
# => `public_send': private method `private_method' called for #<Klass:0x007f5fd7159a80> (NoMethodError)

You may want to prefer #public_send over #send so as not to circumvent private/protected visibility.