inconsistent validate_uniqueness_of & :scope behavior?

rubyonrails-talk
1

(Rails 2.3.4) Can't quite figure out what I'm doing wrong but I'm seeing different behavior for validates_uniqueness_of between two models that look more ore less identical to me --

I have a model called Person:

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base   validates_uniqueness_of :first_name, :scope => :last_name end

I also have a model called Setting (application settings object):

class Setting < ActiveRecord::Base   validates_uniqueness_of :setting, :scope => :category   {some class methods} end

Here's the schemas:

create_table "people", :force => true do |t|     t.string "last_name"     t.string "first_name"     t.datetime "created_at"     t.datetime "updated_at"   end

  create_table "settings", :force => true do |t|     t.string "setting"     t.string "value"     t.float "num_value"     t.string "category"     t.string "tag"     t.datetime "created_at"     t.datetime "updated_at"   end

When I try to add a Person where two rows have the same first name, but different last names, I'm able to save both records successfully.

However when I try to add a Setting where two rows have the same 'setting', but different 'category', I got an

ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Setting has already been taken

Interstingly, the executed SQL in the log file when checking enforcement of the constraint seems to be different for the two models, although so far as I can see, the structure is similar in all the relevant dimensions:

SELECT `people`.id FROM `people` WHERE (`people`.`first_name` = BINARY 'jack' AND `people`.last_name = 'kramer') LIMIT 1 whereas the check performed for dupes in setting is:

SELECT * FROM `settings` WHERE (`settings`.`setting` IN ('`settings`.`setting` = BINARY ? AND `settings`.category = ?','width','frame')) LIMIT 1

(Note that his returned "false" even though there is no Setting where s.category = "frame"

What am I doing wrong? Why is genereated sql for People simply "where a and b" with for Settings it is where (a in (b and c))?

Thanks.

2

It may not be the problem, but I think there is some strangeness there in that you have a model called Setting and an attribute called setting.

possibly, Rails is getting confused - is it validating uniqueness of setting the attribute, or is it thinking that there can be only one Setting instance period...?

Try changing either your model name or that 'setting' attribute name. and see if that fixes it...