module ActiveRecord::AttributeMethods

Active Record Attribute Methods

Constants

RESTRICTED_CLASS_METHODS

Public Instance Methods

[](attr_name) click to toggle source

Returns the value of the attribute identified by attr_name after it has been type cast. (For information about specific type casting behavior, see the types under ActiveModel::Type.)

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :organization
end

person = Person.new(name: "Francesco", date_of_birth: "2004-12-12")
person[:name]            # => "Francesco"
person[:date_of_birth]   # => Date.new(2004, 12, 12)
person[:organization_id] # => nil

Raises ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError if the attribute is missing. Note, however, that the id attribute will never be considered missing.

person = Person.select(:name).first
person[:name]            # => "Francesco"
person[:date_of_birth]   # => ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError: missing attribute 'date_of_birth' for Person
person[:organization_id] # => ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError: missing attribute 'organization_id' for Person
person[:id]              # => nil
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 414
def [](attr_name)
  read_attribute(attr_name) { |n| missing_attribute(n, caller) }
end
[]=(attr_name, value) click to toggle source

Updates the attribute identified by attr_name using the specified value. The attribute value will be type cast upon being read.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

person = Person.new
person[:date_of_birth] = "2004-12-12"
person[:date_of_birth] # => Date.new(2004, 12, 12)
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 427
def []=(attr_name, value)
  write_attribute(attr_name, value)
end
accessed_fields() click to toggle source

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
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 459
def accessed_fields
  @attributes.accessed
end
attribute_for_inspect(attr_name) click to toggle source

Returns an #inspect-like string for the value of the attribute attr_name. String attributes are truncated up to 50 characters. 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 00:15:07.000000000 +0000\""

person.attribute_for_inspect(:tag_ids)
# => "[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]"
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 364
def attribute_for_inspect(attr_name)
  attr_name = attr_name.to_s
  attr_name = self.class.attribute_aliases[attr_name] || attr_name
  value = _read_attribute(attr_name)
  format_for_inspect(attr_name, value)
end
attribute_names() click to toggle source

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"]
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 333
def attribute_names
  @attributes.keys
end
attribute_present?(attr_name) click to toggle source

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
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 386
def attribute_present?(attr_name)
  attr_name = attr_name.to_s
  attr_name = self.class.attribute_aliases[attr_name] || attr_name
  value = _read_attribute(attr_name)
  !value.nil? && !(value.respond_to?(:empty?) && value.empty?)
end
attributes() click to toggle source

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}
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 345
def attributes
  @attributes.to_hash
end
has_attribute?(attr_name) click to toggle source

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

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  alias_attribute :new_name, :name
end

person = Person.new
person.has_attribute?(:name)     # => true
person.has_attribute?(:new_name) # => true
person.has_attribute?('age')     # => true
person.has_attribute?(:nothing)  # => false
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 315
def has_attribute?(attr_name)
  attr_name = attr_name.to_s
  attr_name = self.class.attribute_aliases[attr_name] || attr_name
  @attributes.key?(attr_name)
end
respond_to?(name, include_private = false) click to toggle source

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
Calls superclass method
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 290
def respond_to?(name, include_private = false)
  return false unless super

  # If the result is true then check for the select case.
  # For queries selecting a subset of columns, return false for unselected columns.
  if @attributes
    if name = self.class.symbol_column_to_string(name.to_sym)
      return _has_attribute?(name)
    end
  end

  true
end

Private Instance Methods

attribute_method?(attr_name) click to toggle source
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 494
def attribute_method?(attr_name)
  @attributes&.key?(attr_name)
end
attributes_for_create(attribute_names) click to toggle source

Filters out the virtual columns and also primary keys, from the attribute names, when the primary key is to be generated (e.g. the id attribute has no value).

# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 514
def attributes_for_create(attribute_names)
  attribute_names &= self.class.column_names
  attribute_names.delete_if do |name|
    (pk_attribute?(name) && id.nil?) ||
      column_for_attribute(name).virtual?
  end
end
attributes_for_update(attribute_names) click to toggle source

Filters the primary keys, readonly attributes and virtual columns from the attribute names.

# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 503
def attributes_for_update(attribute_names)
  attribute_names &= self.class.column_names
  attribute_names.delete_if do |name|
    self.class.readonly_attribute?(name) ||
      self.class.counter_cache_column?(name) ||
      column_for_attribute(name).virtual?
  end
end
attributes_with_values(attribute_names) click to toggle source
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 498
def attributes_with_values(attribute_names)
  attribute_names.index_with { |name| @attributes[name] }
end
format_for_inspect(name, value) click to toggle source
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 522
def format_for_inspect(name, value)
  if value.nil?
    value.inspect
  else
    inspected_value = if value.is_a?(String) && value.length > 50
      "#{value[0, 50]}...".inspect
    elsif value.is_a?(Date) || value.is_a?(Time)
      %("#{value.to_fs(:inspect)}")
    else
      value.inspect
    end

    inspection_filter.filter_param(name, inspected_value)
  end
end
method_missing(name, ...) click to toggle source
Calls superclass method
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 474
def method_missing(name, ...)
  unless self.class.attribute_methods_generated?
    if self.class.method_defined?(name)
      # The method is explicitly defined in the model, but calls a generated
      # method with super. So we must resume the call chain at the right step.
      last_method = method(name)
      last_method = last_method.super_method while last_method.super_method
      self.class.define_attribute_methods
      if last_method.super_method
        return last_method.super_method.call(...)
      end
    elsif self.class.define_attribute_methods
      # Some attribute methods weren't generated yet, we retry the call
      return public_send(name, ...)
    end
  end

  super
end
pk_attribute?(name) click to toggle source
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 538
def pk_attribute?(name)
  name == @primary_key
end
respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false) click to toggle source
Calls superclass method
# File lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 464
def respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false)
  if self.class.define_attribute_methods
    # Some methods weren't defined yet.
    return true if self.class.method_defined?(name)
    return true if include_private && self.class.private_method_defined?(name)
  end

  super
end