[TIP] Working with columns that end with "?", like "male?"

rubyonrails-talk
#1

Chris Bloom wrote the following on 04.10.2007 23:24 :

[...]

a.first_place? = true
      

SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):69: syntax error, unexpected '=', expecting $end
a.first_place? = true
                ^
        from (irb):69
        from :0
  
This tries to send "first_place?=" to the a object.

My guess is that it is Ruby that prevents the ? from being part of the
method name unless it is the last character.

Nothing ActiveRecord can do about it...

Lionel

#2

I think the real question is why on earth would you want to have those
column names in the first place? If you have to work with a legacy
db, sure, but I'd never ever ever do that in a migration myself.

And if I did have a legacy db with that schema, I'd just write some
sensible methods:

def male=(val)
  write_attribute :male?, val
end

def male
  read_attribute :male?
end

def male?
  !!male
end

Normal assignment, raw attribute, and predicate...the Rails Way.

Pat