# Artificially setting an association? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 23, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/artificially-setting-an-association/138450 "2008-05-23T06:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Christopher\_JSBott](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Christopher\_JSBott](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Christopher_JSBott)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/artificially-setting-an-association/138450/1 "2008-05-23T06:39:34Z")
Hello. I want to be able to set what’s in an association without Rails trying to update the database. Assume a Page has many Links. I want to be able to say this… page = Page.find :first links = Links.find :all, :conditions =\> [“page\_id != ?”, page.id] page.links = links Without Rails trying to update the database and trying to set page\_id on all the records in links. I wish it was as simple as saying… page.instance\_variable\_set(’@links’, links) but it’s not because links is an association proxy object. Any ideas? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Christopher\_JSBott](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Christopher\_JSBott](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Christopher_JSBott)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/artificially-setting-an-association/138450/2 "2008-05-23T07:02:58Z")
On May 22, 11:39 pm, “Christopher J. Bottaro” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I want to be able to say this… > > page = Page.find :first > links = Links.find :all, :conditions =\> [“page\_id != ?”, page.id] > page.links = links > > Without Rails trying to update the database and trying to set page\_id > on all the records in links. page.links.target = links Use the source, Luke.