# Need help with label references in my fixtures **URL:** \ **Category:** rubyonrails-talk\ **Created:** [May 9, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342 "2009-05-09T05:40:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brian10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Brian10](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Brian10)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/1 "2009-05-09T05:40:05Z")
I am new to Rails and running into problems loading fixtures. After generating a bunch of scaffolding, I did a "rake db:migrate", followed by "rake db:test:load", and then "rake db:fixtures:load". My goal is to run the unit tests so that I can verify that everything is at a good starting point before I do any real development. I get the following error: SQLite3::SQLException: table caches has no column named structure: INSERT INTO " caches" ("structure", "capacity") VALUES (NULL, 1) Can somebody provide a good starting point for troubleshooting this type of problem? After a bit of searching, I think these are the three relevant code snippets that I should be looking at. Model (cache.rb): class Cache \< ActiveRecord::Base   belongs\_to :structure end Schema (schema.rb): create\_table "caches", :force =\> true do |t|     t.integer "capacity"     t.integer "structure\_id"     t.datetime "created\_at"     t.datetime "updated\_at"   end Fixture (caches.yml): one:   capacity: 1   structure: two:   capacity: 1   structure: All of this was generated for me, and it all matches up with what I expect from documentation. I know if "belongs\_to :structure" was missing from my model I should expect the error I'm seeing now, so I'm very suspicious of that being wrong in a subtle way. Here's the model for structure if it matters (as far as I can tell, it doesn't): class Structure \< ActiveRecord::Base   belongs\_to :location end ---
**Author:** ![Frederick\_Cheung](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/frederick_cheung/32/3901_2.png) [@Frederick\_Cheung](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Frederick_Cheung)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/2 "2009-05-09T15:39:51Z")
> I am new to Rails and running into problems loading fixtures. After generating a bunch of scaffolding, I did a "rake db:migrate", followed by "rake db:test:load", and then "rake db:fixtures:load". My goal is to run the unit tests so that I can verify that everything is at a good starting point before I do any real development. I get the following error: you shouldn't need to do rake db:test:load or rake db:fixtures:load > SQLite3::SQLException: table caches has no column named structure: INSERT INTO " caches" ("structure", "capacity") VALUES (NULL, 1) when does this happen ? when running one of the previously mentionned commands, when running the units tests, at some other time ? > Can somebody provide a good starting point for troubleshooting this type of problem? > > After a bit of searching, I think these are the three relevant code snippets that I should be looking at. > > Model (cache.rb): class Cache \< ActiveRecord::Base belongs\_to :structure end > > Schema (schema.rb): create\_table "caches", :force =\> true do |t| t.integer "capacity" t.integer "structure\_id" t.datetime "created\_at" t.datetime "updated\_at" end > > Fixture (caches.yml): one: capacity: 1 structure: > > two: capacity: 1 structure: > > All of this was generated for me, and it all matches up with what I expect from documentation. I know if "belongs\_to :structure" was missing from my model I should expect the error I'm seeing now, so I'm very suspicious of that being wrong in a subtle way. well first off, definitely worth checking if your test database has all the columns you expect. Fred ---
**Author:** ![Brian10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Brian10](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Brian10)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/3 "2009-05-09T16:54:15Z")
> \> SQLite3::SQLException: table caches has no column named structure: \> INSERT INTO " \> caches" ("structure", "capacity") VALUES (NULL, 1) > > when does this happen ? when running one of the previously mentionned commands, when running the units tests, at some other time ? I get this when trying to load fixtures, or when trying to run a unit test: > ruby unit/cache\_test.rb Loaded suite unit/cache\_test Started E Finished in 0.305 seconds.   1) Error: test\_the\_truth(CacheTest): ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: SQLite3::SQLException: table caches has no colum n named structure: INSERT INTO "caches" ("structure", "capacity") VALUES (NULL, 1) > well first off, definitely worth checking if your test database has all the columns you expect. That's a good idea. I figured out where to pick up the SQLite console today so that I could do just that: > sqlite3.exe db/test.sqlite3 .schema caches CREATE TABLE "caches" ("id" INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL, "capacit y" integer, "structure\_id" integer, "created\_at" datetime, "updated\_at" datetime ); So no surprises here. The structure\_id column is there as I would expect. ---
**Author:** ![Frederick\_Cheung](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/frederick_cheung/32/3901_2.png) [@Frederick\_Cheung](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Frederick_Cheung)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/4 "2009-05-09T17:18:41Z")
Does removing the structure: line make a difference ? Fred ---
**Author:** ![Brian10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Brian10](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Brian10)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/5 "2009-05-09T17:33:21Z")
It does, but then I get similar errors loading other fixtures. Right now, my cache fixture only has the two entries generated when I created the model, but I'd like to add more meaningful test data in there to start writing my unit tests. References to structures will be fairly important. ---
**Author:** ![Frederick\_Cheung](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/frederick_cheung/32/3901_2.png) [@Frederick\_Cheung](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Frederick_Cheung)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/6 "2009-05-09T19:04:10Z")
ah, I know what's happening. The default pluralization rules rails has screw up cache/caches, so when rails loads the fixtures it tries to look for the wrong model class so the fixture data is inserted without the structure having being turned into structure\_id Adding an inflector rule should do the trick eg stick ActiveSupport::Inflector.inflections do |inflect|    inflect.irregular 'cache', 'caches' end in an initializer. Fred ---
**Author:** ![Brian10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Brian10](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Brian10)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/7 "2009-05-10T00:14:50Z")
Fred, thank you very much. This was exactly the problem. But I admit that I'm still confused. Everything was created with the "generate" script which presumably uses the same rules. And when I go into the ruby console: Loading development environment (Rails 2.2.2) > > "cache".pluralize =\> "caches" So it seems to get this correct even without the initializer. How did it get it wrong when looking for the model class? ---
**Author:** ![Brian10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Brian10](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Brian10)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/need-help-with-label-references-in-my-fixtures/42342/8 "2009-05-10T00:17:32Z")
Wait, I can answer my own question. To find the model it's using "singularize" and now I can see the error: > > "caches".singularize =\> "cach" Thanks again for your help!