I have data stored in an array and all elements are of the same type. Example:
myarray = [1, 2, 3]
This data will be stored in a text column, array_as_string, of an Object.
class Object < ActiveRecord::Base
So with an instance of Object, I save myarray by creating a space-delimited string
myobject = Object.new(:array_as_string => myarray.join(' ')) myobject.save
Updating is similar. I can then later retrieve the data by splitting the string and converting the string data.
myotherarray = myobject.array_as_string.split.collect { |elem| elem.to_i }
What I'd like to know is there an easier and hopefully more automatic way of doing this? Is there a helper that already exists to do this and that may even detect the type of the element?