Active Record Collection Proxy¶ ↑

Adds one or more records to the collection by setting their foreign keys to the association’s primary key. Since << flattens its argument list and inserts each record, push and concat behave identically. Returns self so several appends may be chained together.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.size # => 0
person.pets << Pet.new(name: 'Fancy-Fancy')
person.pets << [Pet.new(name: 'Spook'), Pet.new(name: 'Choo-Choo')]
person.pets.size # => 3

person.id # => 1
person.pets
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Equivalent to Array#==. Returns true if the two arrays contain the same number of elements and if each element is equal to the corresponding element in the other array, otherwise returns false.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>
#    ]

other = person.pets.to_ary

person.pets == other
# => true

Note that unpersisted records can still be seen as equal:

other = [Pet.new(id: 1), Pet.new(id: 2)]

person.pets == other
# => true

Returns true if the collection is not empty.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.count # => 0
person.pets.any?  # => false

person.pets << Pet.new(name: 'Snoop')
person.pets.count # => 1
person.pets.any?  # => true

Calling it without a block when the collection is not yet loaded is equivalent to collection.exists?. If you’re going to load the collection anyway, it is better to call collection.load.any? to avoid an extra query.

You can also pass a block to define criteria. The behavior is the same, it returns true if the collection based on the criteria is not empty.

person.pets
# => [#<Pet name: "Snoop", group: "dogs">]

person.pets.any? do |pet|
  pet.group == 'cats'
end
# => false

person.pets.any? do |pet|
  pet.group == 'dogs'
end
# => true

Returns a new object of the collection type that has been instantiated with attributes and linked to this object, but have not yet been saved. You can pass an array of attributes hashes, this will return an array with the new objects.

class Person
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.build
# => #<Pet id: nil, name: nil, person_id: 1>

person.pets.build(name: 'Fancy-Fancy')
# => #<Pet id: nil, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>

person.pets.build([{name: 'Spook'}, {name: 'Choo-Choo'}, {name: 'Brain'}])
# => [
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Brain", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size  # => 5 # size of the collection
person.pets.count # => 0 # count from database

Equivalent to delete_all. The difference is that returns self, instead of an array with the deleted objects, so methods can be chained. See delete_all for more information. Note that because delete_all removes records by directly running an SQL query into the database, the updated_at column of the object is not changed.

Count all records.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

# This will perform the count using SQL.
person.pets.count # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Passing a block will select all of a person’s pets in SQL and then perform the count using Ruby.

person.pets.count { |pet| pet.name.include?('-') } # => 2

Returns a new object of the collection type that has been instantiated with attributes, linked to this object and that has already been saved (if it passes the validations).

class Person
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.create(name: 'Fancy-Fancy')
# => #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>

person.pets.create([{name: 'Spook'}, {name: 'Choo-Choo'}])
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size  # => 3
person.pets.count # => 3

person.pets.find(1, 2, 3)
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Like create, except that if the record is invalid, raises an exception.

class Person
  has_many :pets
end

class Pet
  validates :name, presence: true
end

person.pets.create!(name: nil)
# => ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Name can't be blank

Deletes the records supplied from the collection according to the strategy specified by the :dependent option. If no :dependent option is given, then it will follow the default strategy. Returns an array with the deleted records.

For has_many :through associations, the default deletion strategy is :delete_all.

For has_many associations, the default deletion strategy is :nullify. This sets the foreign keys to NULL.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets # dependent: :nullify option by default
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete(Pet.find(1))
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.size # => 2
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Pet.find(1)
# => #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: nil>

If it is set to :destroy all the records are removed by calling their destroy method. See destroy for more information.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets, dependent: :destroy
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete(Pet.find(1), Pet.find(3))
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size # => 1
person.pets
# => [#<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>]

Pet.find(1, 3)
# => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find all Pets with 'id': (1, 3)

If it is set to :delete_all, all the records are deleted without calling their destroy method.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets, dependent: :delete_all
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete(Pet.find(1))
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.size # => 2
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Pet.find(1)
# => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find Pet with 'id'=1

You can pass Integer or String values, it finds the records responding to the id and executes delete on them.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete("1")
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.delete(2, 3)
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Deletes all the records from the collection according to the strategy specified by the :dependent option. If no :dependent option is given, then it will follow the default strategy. Returns the number of deleted records.

For has_many :through associations, the default deletion strategy is :delete_all.

For has_many associations, the default deletion strategy is :nullify. This sets the foreign keys to NULL.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets # dependent: :nullify option by default
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete_all

person.pets.size # => 0
person.pets      # => []

Pet.find(1, 2, 3)
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: nil>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: nil>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: nil>
#    ]

Both has_many and has_many :through dependencies default to the :delete_all strategy if the :dependent option is set to :destroy. Records are not instantiated and callbacks will not be fired.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets, dependent: :destroy
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete_all

Pet.find(1, 2, 3)
# => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find all Pets with 'id': (1, 2, 3)

If it is set to :delete_all, all the objects are deleted without calling their destroy method.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets, dependent: :delete_all
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.delete_all

Pet.find(1, 2, 3)
# => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find all Pets with 'id': (1, 2, 3)

Destroys the records supplied and removes them from the collection. This method will always remove record from the database ignoring the :dependent option. Returns an array with the removed records.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.destroy(Pet.find(1))
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.size # => 2
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.destroy(Pet.find(2), Pet.find(3))
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size  # => 0
person.pets       # => []

Pet.find(1, 2, 3) # => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find all Pets with 'id': (1, 2, 3)

You can pass Integer or String values, it finds the records responding to the id and then deletes them from the database.

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 4, name: "Benny", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 5, name: "Brain", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 6, name: "Boss",  person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.destroy("4")
# => #<Pet id: 4, name: "Benny", person_id: 1>

person.pets.size # => 2
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 5, name: "Brain", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 6, name: "Boss",  person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.destroy(5, 6)
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 5, name: "Brain", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 6, name: "Boss",  person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size  # => 0
person.pets       # => []

Pet.find(4, 5, 6) # => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find all Pets with 'id': (4, 5, 6)

Deletes the records of the collection directly from the database ignoring the :dependent option. Records are instantiated and it invokes before_remove, after_remove, before_destroy, and after_destroy callbacks.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.size # => 3
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.destroy_all

person.pets.size # => 0
person.pets      # => []

Pet.find(1) # => Couldn't find Pet with id=1

Specifies whether the records should be unique or not.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.select(:name)
# => [
#      #<Pet name: "Fancy-Fancy">,
#      #<Pet name: "Fancy-Fancy">
#    ]

person.pets.select(:name).distinct
# => [#<Pet name: "Fancy-Fancy">]

person.pets.select(:name).distinct.distinct(false)
# => [
#      #<Pet name: "Fancy-Fancy">,
#      #<Pet name: "Fancy-Fancy">
#    ]

Returns true if the collection is empty. If the collection has been loaded it is equivalent to collection.size.zero?. If the collection has not been loaded, it is equivalent to !collection.exists?. If the collection has not already been loaded and you are going to fetch the records anyway it is better to check collection.load.empty?.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.count  # => 1
person.pets.empty? # => false

person.pets.delete_all

person.pets.count  # => 0
person.pets.empty? # => true

Same as first except returns only the fifth record.

Finds an object in the collection responding to the id. Uses the same rules as ActiveRecord::FinderMethods.find. Raises ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound error if the object cannot be found.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.find(1) # => #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>
person.pets.find(4) # => ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find Pet with 'id'=4

person.pets.find(2) { |pet| pet.name.downcase! }
# => #<Pet id: 2, name: "spook", person_id: 1>

person.pets.find(2, 3)
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Returns the first record, or the first n records, from the collection. If the collection is empty, the first form returns nil, and the second form returns an empty array.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.first # => #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>

person.pets.first(2)
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>
#    ]

another_person_without.pets          # => []
another_person_without.pets.first    # => nil
another_person_without.pets.first(3) # => []

Same as first except returns only the forty second record. Also known as accessing “the reddit”.

Same as first except returns only the fourth record.

Returns true if the given record is present in the collection.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets # => [#<Pet id: 20, name: "Snoop">]

person.pets.include?(Pet.find(20)) # => true
person.pets.include?(Pet.find(21)) # => false

Returns the last record, or the last n records, from the collection. If the collection is empty, the first form returns nil, and the second form returns an empty array.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.last # => #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>

person.pets.last(2)
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

another_person_without.pets         # => []
another_person_without.pets.last    # => nil
another_person_without.pets.last(3) # => []

Returns the size of the collection calling size on the target. If the collection has been already loaded, length and size are equivalent. If not and you are going to need the records anyway this method will take one less query. Otherwise size is more efficient.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.length # => 3
# executes something like SELECT "pets".* FROM "pets" WHERE "pets"."person_id" = 1

# Because the collection is loaded, you can
# call the collection with no additional queries:
person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Returns true if the association has been loaded, otherwise false.

person.pets.loaded? # => false
person.pets.records
person.pets.loaded? # => true

Returns true if the collection has more than one record. Equivalent to collection.size > 1.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.count # => 1
person.pets.many? # => false

person.pets << Pet.new(name: 'Snoopy')
person.pets.count # => 2
person.pets.many? # => true

You can also pass a block to define criteria. The behavior is the same, it returns true if the collection based on the criteria has more than one record.

person.pets
# => [
#      #<Pet name: "Gorby", group: "cats">,
#      #<Pet name: "Puff", group: "cats">,
#      #<Pet name: "Snoop", group: "dogs">
#    ]

person.pets.many? do |pet|
  pet.group == 'dogs'
end
# => false

person.pets.many? do |pet|
  pet.group == 'cats'
end
# => true

Returns the association object for the collection.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.proxy_association
# => #<ActiveRecord::Associations::HasManyAssociation owner="#<Person:0x00>">

Returns the same object as person.association(:pets), allowing you to make calls like person.pets.proxy_association.owner.

See Association extensions at Associations::ClassMethods for more.

Reloads the collection from the database. Returns self.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets # fetches pets from the database
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

person.pets # uses the pets cache
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.reload # fetches pets from the database
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

Replaces this collection with other_array. This will perform a diff and delete/add only records that have changed.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Gorby", group: "cats", person_id: 1>]

other_pets = [Pet.new(name: 'Puff', group: 'celebrities')]

person.pets.replace(other_pets)

person.pets
# => [#<Pet id: 2, name: "Puff", group: "celebrities", person_id: 1>]

If the supplied array has an incorrect association type, it raises an ActiveRecord::AssociationTypeMismatch error:

person.pets.replace(["doo", "ggie", "gaga"])
# => ActiveRecord::AssociationTypeMismatch: Pet expected, got String

Unloads the association. Returns self.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets # fetches pets from the database
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

person.pets # uses the pets cache
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

person.pets.reset # clears the pets cache

person.pets  # fetches pets from the database
# => [#<Pet id: 1, name: "Snoop", group: "dogs", person_id: 1>]

Returns a Relation object for the records in this association

Same as first except returns only the second record.

Same as last except returns only the second-to-last record.

Works in two ways.

First: Specify a subset of fields to be selected from the result set.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.select(:name)
# => [
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Fancy-Fancy">,
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Spook">,
#      #<Pet id: nil, name: "Choo-Choo">
#    ]

person.pets.select(:id, :name)
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy">,
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook">,
#      #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo">
#    ]

Be careful because this also means you’re initializing a model object with only the fields that you’ve selected. If you attempt to access a field except id that is not in the initialized record you’ll receive:

person.pets.select(:name).first.person_id
# => ActiveModel::MissingAttributeError: missing attribute 'person_id' for Pet

Second: You can pass a block so it can be used just like Array#select. This builds an array of objects from the database for the scope, converting them into an array and iterating through them using Array#select.

person.pets.select { |pet| /oo/.match?(pet.name) }
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

Returns the size of the collection. If the collection hasn’t been loaded, it executes a SELECT COUNT(*) query. Else it calls collection.size.

If the collection has been already loaded size and length are equivalent. If not and you are going to need the records anyway length will take one less query. Otherwise size is more efficient.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets.size # => 3
# executes something like SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "pets" WHERE "pets"."person_id" = 1

person.pets # This will execute a SELECT * FROM query
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.size # => 3
# Because the collection is already loaded, this will behave like
# collection.size and no SQL count query is executed.

Gives a record (or N records if a parameter is supplied) from the collection using the same rules as ActiveRecord::FinderMethods.take.

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pets
end

person.pets
# => [
#       #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>,
#       #<Pet id: 3, name: "Choo-Choo", person_id: 1>
#    ]

person.pets.take # => #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>

person.pets.take(2)
# => [
#      #<Pet id: 1, name: "Fancy-Fancy", person_id: 1>,
#      #<Pet id: 2, name: "Spook", person_id: 1>
#    ]

another_person_without.pets         # => []
another_person_without.pets.take    # => nil
another_person_without.pets.take(2) # => []

Same as first except returns only the third record.

Same as last except returns only the third-to-last record.