Cannot access an object’s attributes in an array

Hello,

I am building a site with works and their credits. What I am trying o
achieve is to find each work’s similar works based on the mutual
titles in their credits.

I am adding each similar work into an array in a for loop and when I
try to access the attributes of these works I get a “nil object when
you didn’t expect it!” error. I can see the Work objects when I debug
in the array, but can’t access to their attributes. Here is the code:

class Work < ActiveRecord::Base

def similar_works
@similar_works
end

def find_similar_works
@similar_works = []
for credit in self.credits
same_credits = credit.title.credits #same credits with mutual
titles
for credit2 in same_credits
@similar_works << credit2.work
end
end
end

end

class WorksController < ApplicationController

def index
list
render(:action => ‘list’)
end

def list
# find similar works for each work
@works.each do |work|
work.find_similar_works
end
end

end

list.html

<% for work in @works -%>
<% for similarwork in work.similar_works%>
<%= similarwork.name%> => nil object
<%=debug(similarwork)%> => sample debug output is below
<% end %>
<% end %>

— !ruby/object:Work
attributes:
name: Borozan
updated_at: 2009-07-31 12:30:30
created_at: 2009-07-31 12:25:32
attributes_cache: {}

— !ruby/object:Work
attributes:
name: Boom
updated_at: 2009-07-31 12:30:30
created_at: 2009-07-31 12:25:32
attributes_cache: {}

— !ruby/object:Work
attributes:
name: Kamuflaj
updated_at: 2009-07-31 12:30:30
created_at: 2009-07-31 12:25:32
attributes_cache: {}

2009/7/31 fahrio [email protected]:

in the array, but can’t access to their attributes. Here is the code:
  for credit in self.credits

  @works.each do |work|
<% for work in @works -%>
<% for similarwork in work.similar_works%>
  <%= similarwork.name%> => nil object
  <%=debug(similarwork)%> => sample debug output is below
<% end %>
<% end %>

Try putting the debug(similarwork) line before the similarwork.name
line. As you have it you will see the debug for all the good ones,
then the first nil one will cause the error and will not get to the
debug. That is a possibility anyway.
Also you could use ruby-debug to break in at that point and inspect
the whole set.

Colin

Can you give us a bit more info about what “credit.title.credits”
looks like? It looks like it should be an array of objects. Put a
logger.info similar_works.inspect and look at your development.log to
see what it says about the values it ends up with.

If it isn’t an array or if it is an empty array you will just end up
doing nothing and that function just exits without accomplishing much.

I see I have used the wrong variable name here… Instead of
similar_works, use logger.info same_credits.inspect

Sorry about that. Your code snippet had quite a few
similar_variable_names. :stuck_out_tongue: