CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsruby
Sheng
Sheng

Reputation: 3555

ActiveRecord validates works on DB record or getter method?

I have a question about the ActiveRecord's validates

For example, with this code:

class Person < ApplicationRecord
  validates :name, presence: true

  def name
    'hello world'
  end
end

There is a getter method name to return a string as the name. There is also a column in the database table, whose name is name.

I understand that, when we call person.name, the method (not the db record) is used. However, for the validates, do we use the method's return value or the db records to check?

I tried to read the ActiveRecord source code, but quickly got lost :-( Any help or pointer is much appreciated!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 51

Answers (1)

anothermh
anothermh

Reputation: 10564

It uses the getter method. It's straight-forward to test:

class Person < ApplicationRecord
  validates :name, presence: true

  def name
    binding.irb
  end
end

Then in the Rails console:

irb(main):002:0> Person.create!

From: /Users/foo/app/models/person.rb @ line 5 :

    3: 
    4:   def name
 => 5:     binding.irb
    6:   end
    7:

And if you simply exit from there (implying nil) you'll receive:

Validation failed: Name can't be blank (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)

Upvotes: 1

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