# Best way to do this **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 30, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570 "2010-01-30T03:11:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/1 "2010-01-30T03:11:03Z")
I’m looking to give an object (buyer) a status. What’s the best way to accomplish this? At the moment, I’m struggling to comprehend my way through the following: 1. Create a status model, then let the user add statuses as they see fit. These statuses can then be applied to a buyer. The buyer table will have a status\_id column. This works fine, but I have a problem when I try to refer to the the status through a buyer. buyer.status gives me the following error: Unknown column ‘statuses.buyer\_id’ in ‘where clause’: SELECT \* FROM `statuses` WHERE (`statuses`.buyer\_id = 12) LIMIT 1 I see what it’s trying to do - go into the status column and find all statuses that have the buyer\_id assigned. The problem is that I don’t want a status to apply to only ONE buyer, I want them to be able to apply to multiple. I’m sure I’m missing something in my routes, or just not understanding the relationship and how I need to instruct rails of this. Can someone help me out? Thanks in advance for any time spent helping. ---
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/2 "2010-01-30T03:15:19Z")
I’m beginning to think there needs to be a third table; one whose columns are: id, buyer\_id, status\_id This would be my first time doing it like this though, so I sort of get stuck understanding how the route is supposed to work. ---
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/3 "2010-01-30T04:31:01Z")
Sounds like you do not have your associations defined correctly in your model. In your Buyer model you should have this line: ``` belongs_to :status ``` In your Status model you should have this line: ``` has_many :buyers ``` HTH, Jamey ---
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/4 "2010-01-30T09:13:02Z")
On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 10:52 PM, Steve C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > ``` > > has_many :buyers > > > > ``` > > Can you help me understand why it’s belongs\_to and not has\_one? A > status is part of a buyer, so I guess I just get confused on the logic. The big difference between has\_one and belongs\_to is that ActiveRecord expects the model that uses the belongs\_to to have a foreign key identifying the associated record in the other table. So, therefore you know you need to use a belongs\_to in Buyer because that the buyers table is where you have defined the status\_id field. HTH, Jamey ---
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/5 "2010-01-30T14:30:36Z")
Steve C. wrote: > Jamey C. wrote: > > > Sounds like you do not have your associations defined correctly in your > > model. > > > > In your Buyer model you should have this line: > > > > ``` > > belongs_to :status > > > > ``` > > > > In your Status model you should have this line: > > > > ``` > > has_many :buyers > > > > ``` > > > > HTH, > > > > Jamey > > That was it! Thank you so much. I was totally getting confused here: > > belongs\_to :status vs. has\_one :status > > Can you help me understand why it’s belongs\_to and not has\_one? A > status is part of a buyer, so I guess I just get confused on the logic. has\_one is just like has\_many except for different cardinality: it means that this table doesn’t contain the foreign key. If you had read the docs for the Associations module, you would have seen this very point clearly explained. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@scrozier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/scrozier)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-do-this/182570/6 "2010-01-30T04:52:58Z")
Jamey C. wrote: > Sounds like you do not have your associations defined correctly in your > model. > > In your Buyer model you should have this line: > > ``` > belongs_to :status > > ``` > > In your Status model you should have this line: > > ``` > has_many :buyers > > ``` > > HTH, > > Jamey That was it! Thank you so much. I was totally getting confused here: belongs\_to :status vs. has\_one :status Can you help me understand why it’s belongs\_to and not has\_one? A status is part of a buyer, so I guess I just get confused on the logic.