# How to know if a column is present within a certain table

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-know-if-a-column-is-present-within-a-certain-table/143235>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 16, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-know-if-a-column-is-present-within-a-certain-table/143235 "2008-07-16T17:17:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paco.onrails)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-know-if-a-column-is-present-within-a-certain-table/143235/1 "2008-07-16T17:17:51Z")

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Hello there, what I need is a method to find out if a column is  
present within a table giving me back a boolean value. Something like:

Mytable.columnpresent(‘my\_column’)

Thank you very much for your help.

Best!!

Paco Reyes  
Interaction Designer

> **[Xentido](https://xentido.com/)**
>
> Xentido

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paco.onrails)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-know-if-a-column-is-present-within-a-certain-table/143235/2 "2008-07-16T17:19:37Z")

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> Hello there, what I need is a method to find out if a column is  
> present within a table giving me back a boolean value. Something like:
> 
> Mytable.columnpresent(‘my\_column’)

Mytable.respond\_to?(‘my\_column’) returns a boolean.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@paco.onrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paco.onrails)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-know-if-a-column-is-present-within-a-certain-table/143235/3 "2008-07-16T17:56:13Z")

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Thanks, it works fine.