Active Record, and multiple models in memory

Hello,

I’m hoping some helpful soul may be able to explain to me why certain
bits of ActiveRecord are doing what they do. I’ve found a way to make it
work, but I don’t actually understand why it works.

I have two models, Boy and Girl which have these relationships

Boy: has_one :girl
Girl: belongs_to :boy

In the Boy controller, I do this…

boy = Boy.find(params[:id])
boy.update_car(AstonMartin) # updates the car field from Skoda to
AstonMartin & saves
boy.girl.marry!

My problem is that the girl.marry! method still sees the value of the
car field as Skoda. Of course she is not happy & the are many
problems…

I’ve put some debug messages in…

puts boy.inspect, just before the boy.girl.marry!
puts girl.boy.inspect inside the girl.marry! routine

The boy.inspect showed an object id of X [not the active record id] and
car = AstonMartin

The girl.boy.inspect show an object id of Y [not the active record id]
and car = Skoda

If I do this, all is good

boy = Boy.find(params[:id])
boy.update_car(AstonMarton) # updates the car field from Skoda to
AstonMartin & saves
girl.boy = boy
boy.girl.marry!

Can someone please shed some light on this & let me know why the extra
girl.boy = boy is needed…?

Thank you for any assistance,

Dave