# Overwriting modifiers methods with Rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 8, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535 "2010-04-08T15:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/1 "2010-04-08T15:05:50Z")
Hi everyone! I’m a little bit new to Rails development and I am looking for a solution for this issue. Let’s say that I have a model called Person and the person has an attribute name. But I want to put a surname with this name. Something like this: class Unit \< ActiveRecord::Base def name= name @name = name + ‘bla bla’ end end In Ruby I could do this, but this doesn’t affect my object at all… How can I do that? ## Thanks in advance Marco Antonio ---
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/2 "2010-04-08T15:08:10Z")
On Apr 8, 9:54 am, Marco Antonio F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > class Unit \< ActiveRecord::Base > > def name= name > @name = name + ‘bla bla’ > end > > end > > In Ruby I could do this, but this doesn’t affect my object at all… The key thing is that ActiveRecord attributes aren’t instance variables. You can use write\_attribute to write to the store of attributes. Fred ---
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/3 "2010-04-08T15:20:28Z")
So you would do def name= name write\_attribute :name, name end – Jeremy C. [http://twitter.com/jeremychase](http://twitter.com/jeremychase) On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 9:04 AM, Frederick C. \ **Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/4 "2010-04-08T15:53:52Z") On Apr 8, 2:32 pm, Andy J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’m sure I’ve seen it in later versions, but thought I’d post it anyway. > > If it is deprecated, another way is: > > self.attributes[‘name’] = name + ‘blah blah’ > > It’s not exactly the same as write\_attribute (it doesn’t typecast to numbers > for numeric columns) but it will work the same in your case. actually it is the same: active\_record/base.rb says (in 2.3.5) ``` def []=(attr_name, value) write_attribute(attr_name, value) end ``` Couldn’t see any trace in the source of write attribute being marked as deprecated. Fred ---
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/5 "2010-04-09T04:06:52Z")
:Frederick C.: > Couldn’t see any trace in the source of write attribute being marked > as deprecated. It (ActiveRecord::Base#write\_attribute) is not just deperecated, it is gone. But another method with the same name in a different class (ActiveRecord::AttributeMethods#write\_attribute) replaced it. The new function has the same functionality and is in scope virtually everywhere the old one was. Thus to the end user, it is just the same as it has always been. In other words the function moved. ---
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/6 "2010-04-08T15:35:07Z")
> The key thing is that ActiveRecord attributes aren’t instance > variables. You can use write\_attribute to write to the store of > attributes. “This method is deprecated on the latest stable version of Rails. The last existing version (v1.2.6) is shown here.” [http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/Base/write\_attribute](http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/Base/write_attribute) I’m sure I’ve seen it in later versions, but thought I’d post it anyway. If it is deprecated, another way is: self.attributes[‘name’] = name + ‘blah blah’ It’s not exactly the same as write\_attribute (it doesn’t typecast to numbers for numeric columns) but it will work the same in your case. Cheers, Andy ---
**Author:** ![mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mffreire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mffreire)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 11:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/overwriting-modifiers-methods-with-rails/186535/7 "2010-04-09T11:04:46Z")
Ahh OK, useful to know. It would be helpful (in languages/frameworks in general) if a deprecation always had a comment on where to look for more information. Generally Rails is good at this, but maybe that information isn’t filtered through to [APIDock.com](http://APIDock.com). Cheers, Andy – Andy J. [http://andyjeffries.co.uk/](http://andyjeffries.co.uk/)#rubyonrails #mysql #jquery Registered address: 64 Sish Lane, Stevenage, Herts, SG1 3LS Company number: 5452840