Queries w/ Joins & Concatenated Fields: find_by_sql vs find

[Brian]

Hello,

I have the following query I want to use to create a html list in one of my forms: SELECT contact.id, concat(contact.lname, ", ", contact.fname) AS name FROM contacts contact INNER JOIN lu_contact_categories category ON (contact.category_id = category.id) WHERE (category.name = ‘Employee’) I know i can use the find_by_sql method of ActiveRecord::Base to accomplish this. I would, however, like to understand if: this is an appropriate use of that method the find method can also accomplish this. which is the recommended approach. Here is a little background on the tables & models. Table definitions [contacts] - id - fname - lname - category_id (category_id is a foreign key pointing to lu_contact_categories.id) [lu_contact_categories] - id - name Model for contacts table class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base has_one :lu_contact_category, :foreign_key => “id” end Model for lu_contact_categories table class LuContactCategory < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :contact, :foreign_key => “category_id” end Any suggestions are appreciated! Brian

[javier_ramirez]

SELECT contact.id,
concat(contact.lname, ", ", contact.fname) AS name FROM contacts contact INNER JOIN lu_contact_categories category 2. the find method can also accomplish this.

you can do this with find, yes. The :select parameter represents the field list to retrieve (defaults to *). Also, the :joins and :conditions parameters can be used to define a inner join. You could also use :include and save the :joins/:conditions part, but that will give you a LEFT OUTER.

regards,

javier ramirez

[Brian]

Thank you for your comments! - Brian