# Change the column name field in error message

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-the-column-name-field-in-error-message/189351>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 29, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-the-column-name-field-in-error-message/189351 "2010-05-29T12:16:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregm)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-the-column-name-field-in-error-message/189351/1 "2010-05-29T12:16:19Z")

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Hi,  
When an error is display, it first show the column concerned. Does  
someone knows how to change the display column name?

Greg

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**Author:** ![gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregm)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-the-column-name-field-in-error-message/189351/2 "2010-05-29T19:35:31Z")

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Hi Greg,

Rails by default use DB column name while displaying errors on UI. You  
can  
choose one of the following options to write custom validation errors

1. User plugin [http://rubyforge.org/projects/custom-err-msg/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/custom-err-msg/)
2. Check validation errors in validate method and use add\_to\_base for  
custom messages
3. Override error\_messages\_for method

–Haribhau

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**Author:** ![gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gregm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregm)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-the-column-name-field-in-error-message/189351/3 "2010-05-31T10:20:39Z")

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Put this in the model:

HUMAN\_ATTRIBUTES = {:some\_column =\> ‘Column display  
name’, :some\_other\_column =\> ‘Another column display name’}  
def self.human\_attribute\_name(attr)  
HUMAN\_ATTRIBUTES[attr.to\_sym] || super  
end

Obviously you want to replace my examples (:some\_column, ‘Column  
display name’, etc.) with your column names and display versions of  
those names.