How to create 0:M or 0:1 relationships in ActiveRecord?

Rails
1

I’m comfortable using has_many and belongs_to for 1:M relationships.
But how do you implement 0:1 and 0:M relationships? Thanks!

2

Taylor S. wrote:

I’m comfortable using has_many and belongs_to for 1:M relationships.
But how do you implement 0:1 and 0:M relationships? Thanks!

What does that mean?

3

Maybe a better question is, “Can Active Record use :has_many and
:belongs to without FK definitions being present in the database?”

For example, I have buildings who have landlords. However, since this
data is input by renters, landlord data will often not be submitted. So
i need to indicate that builds belong to landlords but AR complains when
there is no landlord to attribute it to. If I remove the foreign key
constraint how do I define the relationship?

4

Taylor S. wrote:

Maybe a better question is, “Can Active Record use :has_many and
:belongs to without FK definitions being present in the database?”

For example, I have buildings who have landlords. However, since this
data is input by renters, landlord data will often not be submitted. So
i need to indicate that builds belong to landlords but AR complains when
there is no landlord to attribute it to. If I remove the foreign key
constraint how do I define the relationship?

You’re certainly allowed to have a :belongs_to relationship to nil.
i.e., create a building such that building.landlord_id=nil.

Just don’t “validates_presence_of” on landlord_id.

Jake