# myObject.send(column.name) from Agile Development book **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 27, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/myobject-send-column-name-from-agile-development-book/54388 "2005-12-27T05:25:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Shelby_W)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/myobject-send-column-name-from-agile-development-book/54388/1 "2005-12-27T05:25:04Z")
I’m studying the Agile Development with Rails book. In the chapter that first sets up the depot application (page 68), there is this bit of code from a view: \<% for product in @products %\> \<% for column in Product.content\_columns %\> \<%=h product.send(column.name) %\> \<% end %\> etc... I am trying to absorb both Ruby and rails as fast as I can. So I am searching both the Ruby API and the Rails API for methods that I don’t know. When I lookup “send” in the rails API, I don’t find anything. When I look it up in the Ruby API, it says that the form is obj.send(symbol [,args…]). Well, there is no symbol in use here. So I am confused about the “send”. Then, I can’t find a method “name” anywhere. Unlike “human\_name”, it is not listed as one of the methods of a Column in active record. At least I can’t find it. I know what this code accomplishes, but I wish I understood it better. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks, Shelby ---
**Author:** ![Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Shelby_W)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/myobject-send-column-name-from-agile-development-book/54388/2 "2005-12-27T06:46:11Z")
I suggest that you use script/console and irb to find stuff that isn’t in the docs. First go to the directory of your rails app, and do the following: fg@moo:/opt/www/mart$ script/console Loading development environment. > > Product.columns[1].name > > =\> “product\_category\_id” > > > Product.columns[2].name > > =\> “reference” > > > Product.columns[2].name.class > > =\> String > > > Product.columns[2].methods.sort > > =\> ["==", “===”, “=~”, “ **id** ”, “ **send** ”, “`”, “b64encode”, “blank?”, > > “class”, “clone”, “dclone”, “decode64”, “decode\_b”, “default”, > > “display”, > > “dup”, “encode64”, “eql?”, “equal?”, “extend”, “freeze”, “frozen?”, > > “hash”, > > “human\_name”, “id”, “inspect”, “instance\_eval”, “instance\_of?”, > > “instance\_variable\_get”, “instance\_variable\_set”, “instance\_variables”, > > “is\_a?”, “kind\_of?”, “klass”, “limit”, “load”, “method”, “methods”, > > “name”, > > “nil?”, “null”, “number?”, “object\_id”, “primary”, “primary=”, > > “private\_methods”, “protected\_methods”, “public\_methods”, > > “remove\_subclasses\_of”, “require”, “require\_gem”, > > “require\_gem\_with\_options”, > > “require\_library\_or\_gem”, “respond\_to?”, “returning”, “send”, > > “silence\_stderr”, “silence\_warnings”, “singleton\_methods”, > > “subclasses\_of”, > > “suppress”, “taguri”, “taguri=”, “taint”, “tainted?”, “text?”, “to\_a”, > > “to\_s”, “to\_yaml”, “to\_yaml\_properties”, “to\_yaml\_style”, “type”, > > “type\_cast”, “type\_cast\_code”, “untaint”] So there’s a ‘name’ method which gives you the name of the column. fg@moo:/opt/www/mart$ irb irb(main):001:0\> 5.send(:+, 4) =\> 9 irb(main):002:0\> 5.send("+", 4) =\> 9 5 is an object, that has a method “+” and accept another object to add it. Looks like ‘send’ method accepts either a symbol like :+ or a string “+” to name the method. Good luck, Francois ---
**Author:** ![Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Shelby_W)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/myobject-send-column-name-from-agile-development-book/54388/3 "2005-12-27T07:04:14Z")
You found the right send method. The first argument to send is the name of the method that you’d like to invoke, followed by any arguments needed by the method. [http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Object.html#M001048](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Object.html#M001048) Regarding name, it is an attribute of Column, as is default, limit, etc. [http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/](http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/) Column.html In the case of the depot app, that would be product. ---
**Author:** ![Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@Shelby\_W](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Shelby_W)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/myobject-send-column-name-from-agile-development-book/54388/4 "2005-12-27T18:02:59Z")
Disregard the last sentence below. It was extraneous. I had started to say "in the case of the depot app the names of the methods would be product.title, product.description, etc.