attr_symbol¶ ↑

Allows you to declare attributes that are handled as symbols. Assigning a value to the attribute converts it to a symbol, and accessing the attribute always returns a symbol.

When used in an ActiveRecord model class, the attribute will be stored as a string in the underlying database column.

Usage in Plain Ol’ Ruby Objects¶ ↑

class User
    attr_symbol :state

    def initialize
        @state = :inactive
    end
end

u = User.new
p u.state # => :inactive

u.state = 'active'
p u.state # => :active

u.state = "    \r  \n\r  \n \n  inactive \n\r  \n\r    foo filler \r <html lang=\"en\"></html> \r\n \n\n   "
p u.state # => :inactive

Usage with ActiveRecord¶ ↑

class Thing < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_symbol :a
end

# Stores the string 'foo' in the field 'a'
thing = Thing.create!(:a => :foo)

thing = Thing.find(1)
thing.a --> :foo

thing.a = 'urk'
thing.a --> :urk

thing.a = ''
thing.a --> nil

thing.a = '  '
thing.a --> nil

attr_symbol

Development

Runtime

attr_symbol¶ ↑

Usage in Plain Ol’ Ruby Objects¶ ↑

Usage with ActiveRecord¶ ↑

Copyright¶ ↑