Module: ActiveRecord::AttributeMethods

Extended by:
ActiveSupport::Autoload, ActiveSupport::Concern
Includes:
ActiveModel::AttributeMethods
Included in:
Base
Defined in:
lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb,
lib/active_record.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/read.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/dirty.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/query.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/write.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/primary_key.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/serialization.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/before_type_cast.rb,
lib/active_record/attribute_methods/time_zone_conversion.rb

Overview

Active Record Attribute Methods

Defined Under Namespace

Modules: BeforeTypeCast, ClassMethods, Dirty, PrimaryKey, Query, Read, Serialization, TimeZoneConversion, Write Classes: GeneratedAttributeMethods

Constant Summary collapse

AttrNames =
Module.new {
  def self.set_name_cache(name, value)
    const_name = "ATTR_#{name}"
    unless const_defined? const_name
      const_set const_name, value.dup.freeze
    end
  end
}
BLACKLISTED_CLASS_METHODS =
%w(private public protected allocate new name parent superclass)

Instance Method Summary collapse

Instance Method Details

#[](attr_name) ⇒ Object

Returns the value of the attribute identified by attr_name after it has been typecast (for example, “2004-12-12” in a date column is cast to a date object, like Date.new(2004, 12, 12)). It raises ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError if the identified attribute is missing.

Note: :id is always present.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :organization
end

person = Person.new(name: 'Francesco', age: '22')
person[:name] # => "Francesco"
person[:age]  # => 22

person = Person.select('id').first
person[:name]            # => ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError: missing attribute: name
person[:organization_id] # => ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError: missing attribute: organization_id


395
396
397
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 395

def [](attr_name)
  read_attribute(attr_name) { |n| missing_attribute(n, caller) }
end

#[]=(attr_name, value) ⇒ Object

Updates the attribute identified by attr_name with the specified value. (Alias for the protected #write_attribute method).

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.new
person[:age] = '22'
person[:age] # => 22
person[:age].class # => Integer


409
410
411
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 409

def []=(attr_name, value)
  write_attribute(attr_name, value)
end

#accessed_fieldsObject

Returns the name of all database fields which have been read from this model. This can be useful in development mode to determine which fields need to be selected. For performance critical pages, selecting only the required fields can be an easy performance win (assuming you aren't using all of the fields on the model).

For example:

class PostsController < ActionController::Base
  after_action :print_accessed_fields, only: :index

  def index
    @posts = Post.all
  end

  private

  def print_accessed_fields
    p @posts.first.accessed_fields
  end
end

Which allows you to quickly change your code to:

class PostsController < ActionController::Base
  def index
    @posts = Post.select(:id, :title, :author_id, :updated_at)
  end
end


442
443
444
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 442

def accessed_fields
  @attributes.accessed
end

#attribute_for_inspect(attr_name) ⇒ Object

Returns an #inspect-like string for the value of the attribute attr_name. String attributes are truncated up to 50 characters, Date and Time attributes are returned in the :db format. Other attributes return the value of #inspect without modification.

person = Person.create!(name: 'David Heinemeier Hansson ' * 3)

person.attribute_for_inspect(:name)
# => "\"David Heinemeier Hansson David Heinemeier Hansson ...\""

person.attribute_for_inspect(:created_at)
# => "\"2012-10-22 00:15:07\""

person.attribute_for_inspect(:tag_ids)
# => "[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]"


346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 346

def attribute_for_inspect(attr_name)
  value = read_attribute(attr_name)

  if value.is_a?(String) && value.length > 50
    "#{value[0, 50]}...".inspect
  elsif value.is_a?(Date) || value.is_a?(Time)
    %("#{value.to_s(:db)}")
  else
    value.inspect
  end
end

#attribute_namesObject

Returns an array of names for the attributes available on this object.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.new
person.attribute_names
# => ["id", "created_at", "updated_at", "name", "age"]


314
315
316
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 314

def attribute_names
  @attributes.keys
end

#attribute_present?(attribute) ⇒ Boolean

Returns true if the specified attribute has been set by the user or by a database load and is neither nil nor empty? (the latter only applies to objects that respond to empty?, most notably Strings). Otherwise, false. Note that it always returns true with boolean attributes.

class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
end

task = Task.new(title: '', is_done: false)
task.attribute_present?(:title)   # => false
task.attribute_present?(:is_done) # => true
task.title = 'Buy milk'
task.is_done = true
task.attribute_present?(:title)   # => true
task.attribute_present?(:is_done) # => true

Returns:

  • (Boolean)


373
374
375
376
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 373

def attribute_present?(attribute)
  value = _read_attribute(attribute)
  !value.nil? && !(value.respond_to?(:empty?) && value.empty?)
end

#attributesObject

Returns a hash of all the attributes with their names as keys and the values of the attributes as values.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.create(name: 'Francesco', age: 22)
person.attributes
# => {"id"=>3, "created_at"=>Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:53:04, "updated_at"=>Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:53:04, "name"=>"Francesco", "age"=>22}


326
327
328
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 326

def attributes
  @attributes.to_hash
end

#has_attribute?(attr_name) ⇒ Boolean

Returns true if the given attribute is in the attributes hash, otherwise false.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.new
person.has_attribute?(:name)    # => true
person.has_attribute?('age')    # => true
person.has_attribute?(:nothing) # => false

Returns:

  • (Boolean)


302
303
304
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 302

def has_attribute?(attr_name)
  @attributes.key?(attr_name.to_s)
end

#respond_to?(name, include_private = false) ⇒ Boolean

A Person object with a name attribute can ask person.respond_to?(:name), person.respond_to?(:name=), and person.respond_to?(:name?) which will all return true. It also defines the attribute methods if they have not been generated.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.new
person.respond_to?(:name)    # => true
person.respond_to?(:name=)   # => true
person.respond_to?(:name?)   # => true
person.respond_to?('age')    # => true
person.respond_to?('age=')   # => true
person.respond_to?('age?')   # => true
person.respond_to?(:nothing) # => false

Returns:

  • (Boolean)


270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
# File 'lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb', line 270

def respond_to?(name, include_private = false)
  return false unless super

  case name
  when :to_partial_path
    name = "to_partial_path".freeze
  when :to_model
    name = "to_model".freeze
  else
    name = name.to_s
  end

  # If the result is true then check for the select case.
  # For queries selecting a subset of columns, return false for unselected columns.
  # We check defined?(@attributes) not to issue warnings if called on objects that
  # have been allocated but not yet initialized.
  if defined?(@attributes) && self.class.column_names.include?(name)
    return has_attribute?(name)
  end

  true
end