# ActiveRecord::Extensions Question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 12, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332 "2007-02-12T19:42:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dfg59)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332/1 "2007-02-12T19:42:42Z")

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After a discussion of using ActiveRecord for data validation, it became  
apparent to me (and others) that ActiveRecord was missing the ability to  
iterate over a large set of records without storing the entire set in  
memory. Someone in the thread mentioned that ActiveRecord Extensions may  
have this ability. Essentially, I want to do a Table.find(:all).each,  
however there are quite a lot of records and I’d like to iterate across  
them without storing the entire dataset locally (something like a  
cursor). Does ActiveRecord::Extensions have this ability? I’ve looked at  
the documentation (what little I could find) and didn’t see anything  
like this.

-Drew

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**Author:** ![dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dfg59)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332/2 "2007-02-12T22:29:17Z")

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On 2/12/07, Drew O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> like this.  
> Try ActiveRecord::Enumerable by Michael S.:  
> [http://schuerig.de/michael/blog/index.php/2007/02/03/ar-enumerable/](http://schuerig.de/michael/blog/index.php/2007/02/03/ar-enumerable/)

It uses a ‘paged’ find under the covers rather than cursors.

jeremy

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**Author:** ![dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dfg59)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332/3 "2007-02-12T22:34:28Z")

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Jeremy K. wrote:

> On 2/12/07, Drew O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > like this.  
> > Try ActiveRecord::Enumerable by Michael S.:  
> > [ActiveRecord Enumerable | Michael Schürig](http://schuerig.de/michael/blog/index.php/2007/02/03/ar-enumerable/)
> 
> It uses a ‘paged’ find under the covers rather than cursors.
> 
> jeremy

Jeremy -

Thanks so much for the response. This seems to be almost exactly what I  
was looking for. I will download later today and mess around with it.

-Drew

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**Author:** ![dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dfg59](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dfg59)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-extensions-question/85332/4 "2007-02-12T22:55:06Z")

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Jeremy K. wrote:

> On 2/12/07, Drew O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > like this.  
> > Try ActiveRecord::Enumerable by Michael S.:  
> > [http://schuerig.de/michael/blog/index.php/2007/02/03/ar-enumerable/](http://schuerig.de/michael/blog/index.php/2007/02/03/ar-enumerable/)
> 
> It uses a ‘paged’ find under the covers rather than cursors.
> 
> jeremy

Follow up question: is there a way to install these “plug-ins” without  
using the rails framework? I am using ActiveRecord for standalone data  
validation and hence I can’t do a script/plugin install …

Thanks,  
Drew