Using a boolean attribute with a conditional statement

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'm betting this is a schoolboy error:

I have a 'protected_profile' boolean attribute in my user model, and I want to use it in a controller action, like so;

if @user.protected_profile = true   some.task else   some_other.task end

But even if the protected_profile boolean returns false in the browser (<%= @user.protected_profile %>), the above action doesn't seem to work.

I barely remember reading something about Ruby assigning true values in most instances - is that what is causing my problems?

2

I'm betting this is a schoolboy error:

I have a 'protected_profile' boolean attribute in my user model, and I want to use it in a controller action, like so;

if @user.protected_profile = true some.task else some_other.task end

But even if the protected_profile boolean returns false in the browser (<%= @user.protected_profile %>), the above action doesn't seem to
work.

I barely remember reading something about Ruby assigning true values
in most instances - is that what is causing my problems?

No. Your problem is that = is the assignment operator, not the
comparison operator (that's ==) You probably just want: if @user.protected_profile   some.task else   some_other.task end

Fred

3

Frederick Cheung wrote:

4

Frederick Cheung wrote:

end

But even if the protected_profile boolean returns false in the
browser (<%= @user.protected_profile %>), the above action doesn't seem to work.

I barely remember reading something about Ruby assigning true values in most instances - is that what is causing my problems?

No. Your problem is that = is the assignment operator, not the comparison operator (that's ==) You probably just want: if @user.protected_profile some.task else some_other.task end

Fred

Thanks Fred. I tried your suggestion, but it doesn't work. A user with protected_profile 'false' will still do some.task, rather than some_other.task. The same goes when using the comparison operator, @user.protected_profile == true.

Are you setting protecting profile to the string 'false'? The two are
completely different (and you may not expect it, but the string
'false' is in fact true.

Fred

5

Neil Cauldwell wrote:

Thanks Fred. I tried your suggestion, but it doesn't work. A user with protected_profile 'false' will still do some.task, rather than some_other.task. The same goes when using the comparison operator, @user.protected_profile == true.

If this is an ActiveRecord model with a *database* type of boolean, you shouldn't assume anything about the actual value of the attribute. Different database adapters will use different values. As Fred says, because the value *displays* as 'false' doesn't mean it is the "false" boolean value.

The best way to test a boolean attribute is with a query predicate:

if @user.protected_profile?

This allows the adapter to translate the database value into a boolean for you...

6

Thanks guys. The following seems to do the trick;

    if @user.protected_profile? == true