Skip to Content Skip to Search

Active Record Attribute Methods

Namespace
Methods
#
A
H
R
Included Modules

Constants

RESTRICTED_CLASS_METHODS = %w(private public protected allocate new name superclass)
 

Instance Public methods

[](attr_name)

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 activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 414
def [](attr_name)
  read_attribute(attr_name) { |n| missing_attribute(n, caller) }
end

[]=(attr_name, value)

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 activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 427
def []=(attr_name, value)
  write_attribute(attr_name, value)
end

accessed_fields()

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 activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 459
def accessed_fields
  @attributes.accessed
end

attribute_for_inspect(attr_name)

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 activerecord/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()

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 activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 333
def attribute_names
  @attributes.keys
end

attribute_present?(attr_name)

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 activerecord/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()

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 activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb, line 345
def attributes
  @attributes.to_hash
end

has_attribute?(attr_name)

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 activerecord/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)

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
# File activerecord/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