# Funny singularization/constantization in scaffold controller **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 21, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809 "2007-01-21T08:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/1 "2007-01-21T08:05:25Z")
Hi all. I’m new to Ruby and Rails so please bear with. I’m creating an app to maintain a birders life list. One of the Models I need is Genus. The plural of Genus is Genera. So, my table is titled Genera and in my genus.rb I have the line ‘self.table\_name = “genera”’. My first hurdle was that when I generate the scaffold it still wanted a table called genus. Got around that by creating a view genus as suggested somewhere. Now the scaffold (genus\_maint) generates but when I try to execute I get a “uninitialized constant Genu” when the list method is trying to paginate: ‘@genus\_pages, @genus = paginate :genus, :per\_page =\> 10’ It’s as if rails is trying to singularize “genus”. Actually, what it is really trying to do is constantize it. Here’s the full trace: /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:123:in `const_missing' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:131:in`const\_missing’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/inflector.rb:161:in `constantize' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb:59:in`constantize’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.5/lib/action\_controller/pagination.rb:194:in `paginator_and_collection_for' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.5/lib/action_controller/pagination.rb:129:in`paginate’ #{RAILS\_ROOT}/app/controllers/genus\_maint\_controller.rb:12:in `list' #{RAILS_ROOT}/app/controllers/genus_maint_controller.rb:3:in`index’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsSept2006.locobundle/i386/bin/mongrel\_rails:18 Hope this looks okay. I haven’t tried any formatting on this question. TIA for any advice. the goob ---
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 8:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/2 "2007-01-21T08:14:26Z")
Hmmm. Maybe in environment.rb an inflection rule? Sorry, should have looked a little farther before posting. ---
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 8:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/3 "2007-01-21T08:32:27Z")
Okay. modified environment.rb with: Inflector.inflections do |inflect| inflect.irregular ‘genus’, ‘genera’ end regenerated the model (still had to had the self.table\_name = “genera” to genus.rb) regenerated the scaffold and voila ---
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/4 "2007-01-21T21:27:56Z")
the goob wrote: > Hi all. I’m new to Ruby and Rails so please bear with. I’m creating > an app to maintain a birders life list. One of the Models I need is > Genus. The plural of Genus is Genera. Rails is not _that_ clever when working out the plural or singular versions of names - it makes good guesses though. You will need to specify this in your config/environment.rb file: Inflector.inflections do |inflect| inflect.irregular ‘genus’, ‘genera’ end ---
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/5 "2007-01-30T04:18:44Z")
Ha require ‘little\_latin’ require ‘less\_greek’ whatever works this got caught by my spam filter so a slow reply. take care ---
**Author:** ![the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@the\_goob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/the_goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/funny-singularization-constantization-in-scaffold-controller/82809/6 "2007-01-21T22:17:07Z")
askegg wrote: > Inflector.inflections do |inflect| > inflect.irregular ‘genus’, ‘genera’ > end Can’t you just require ‘latin’ ? Ouch! Don’t hit! Don’t hit!! – Phlip [Redirecting...](http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!!