# Assign defaults to fields

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/assign-defaults-to-fields/81116>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 4, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/assign-defaults-to-fields/81116 "2007-01-04T03:15:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/costi)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/assign-defaults-to-fields/81116/1 "2007-01-04T03:15:42Z")

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I have this function in my model to assign defaults for create object  
forms. However, it doesn’t seems right. Is there another way to do it?

DEFAULT\_NAME = ‘PANCHO GOMEZ, JR’  
DEFAULT\_ADDRESS = ‘1234 CAMINO DEL TORRO’

def assign\_defaults  
self.id\_name = DEFAULT\_NAME if self.id\_name.nil?  
self.id\_address = DEFAULT\_ADDRESS if self.id\_address.nil?  
self.id\_sex = DEFAULT\_SEX if self.id\_sex.nil?  
# [… and so on …]  
end

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/costi)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/assign-defaults-to-fields/81116/2 "2007-01-04T03:27:31Z")

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If this is in your database, then you could have each of your column  
names use a default value, that would be overridden when you gave it a  
value.

something like this would work in your migrations file:

create\_table “content\_nodes”, :force =\> true do |t|  
t.column “name”, :string, :default =\> “”  
end

Matt

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@costi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/costi)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/assign-defaults-to-fields/81116/3 "2007-01-04T08:38:03Z")

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hi,

in your model

def initialize#constructor  
@id\_name=“PANCHO GOMEZ, JR”  
end

regards  
gaurav