named_scopes - any reason why you should not alway use a named scope (c.f. a custom method to return limited results)

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

I’ve just discovered the “named_scope” method which seems great. I’m wondering there is any reason why you wouldn’t always use a named scope (to get the advantages), over a custom method on your model to return an array of records?

That is using:

class Shirt < ActiveRecord::Base
    named_scope :red, :conditions => {:color => 'red'}
end

instead of

class Shirt < ActiveRecord::Base
    def red

       Shirt.find_all_by_color('red')
    end
end

Comments?

2

(bump)

3

The only reason to use a custom method instead of a named_scope is when you’re doing more than querying the db or there’s something named_scopes can’t handle.

4

ok - so if you had the time, updating all your custom finder methods to named_scope would give you more flexibility then. I was just wanting to check if there were any negatives or gotchas to named_scope’s

5

It would definitely give you more flexibility because of the ability to chain together named_scopes.