Querying has_many relationships

I am trying to build a small database of Universities, Departments and
Courses. But for some reason I can’t seem to get a list of courses
attached to a Department.

So far I have the following Database:
=> Course(id: integer, course_name: string, length: integer,
description: text, programme: string, department_id: integer,
university_id: integer, created_at: datetime, updated_at: datetime)

=> Department(id: integer, department_name: string,
department_description: text, head_firstname: string, head_lastname:
string, head_email: string, university_id: integer, courses_id:
integer, created_at: datetime, updated_at: datetime)

=> University(id: integer, name: string, website: string, country:
string, city: string, departments_id: integer, courses_id: integer,
created_at: datetime, updated_at: datetime)

Models:
class Course < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :department
belongs_to :university
end
class Department < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :university
has_many :courses
end
class University < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :departments
has_many :courses
end

For the Department I am trying to run the following controller
def index
@departments = Department.includes(:courses, :university)

and the following view:
<% @departments.each do |department| %>

<%= department.department_name %> <%= department.department_description %> <%= department.head_firstname %> <%= department.head_lastname %> <%= department.head_email %> <%= department.university.name %> <%= department.courses %>

that last line outputs #Course:0x1042b8270 and it fails when i try
to add something like department.courses.course_name

I am at a loss here and haven’t been able to find any clues on the
documentation as to what I might be doing wrong. If anyone could at
least point me in the right direction, that would be great.

On Nov 28, 9:07pm, Bruno A. [email protected] wrote:

<%= department.courses %>

that last line outputs #Course:0x1042b8270 and it fails when i try
to add something like department.courses.course_name

I am at a loss here and haven’t been able to find any clues on the
documentation as to what I might be doing wrong. If anyone could at
least point me in the right direction, that would be great.

Because department.courses is a collection of courses and doesn’t have
a course_name attribute (although the objects in that collection will
do). You either need to pick which course you want to manipulate all
iterate over them (similarly, you can’t do
@departments.department_name - you had to iterate over the departments
in that collection)

Fred

I suspect department.courses returns and array and when you print it
out you get the address of the first entry in the array.

That would also explain department.courses.course_name would fail
because you have to index into the department.courses array like
department.courses[x].course_name to be able to set it

Skt, Fred, Collin, thank you!

The following code was enough to get the view working:

<% department.courses.each do |course| %>
<%= course.course_name %>
<% end %>

I am very new to both ruby and rails so I tend to miss a few key
concepts, as was the case.

Thank you again :slight_smile:

On 28 November 2010 21:07, Bruno A. [email protected] wrote:

department_description: text, head_firstname: string, head_lastname:
belongs_to :university
You don’t need course belongs_to university, because course belongs_to
department and department belongs_to university. So the university
for a course is course.department.university. That is on the
assumption that the university the course belongs to is the same one
that it’s department belongs to.

For the Department I am trying to run the following controller

<%= department.head_email %> <%= department.university.name %> <%= department.courses %>

that last line outputs #Course:0x1042b8270 and it fails when i try
to add something like department.courses.course_name

I see Fred has pointed out the problem here already.

Colin

It’d be interesting if AssociationProxy added in pluralised attribute
names as easy go-to’s for mappings, hey?

for example:

department.courses.course_names

(yields the same result as:…)

department.courses.map{|course| course.course_name}


Buy my new album! 16 Sep 2010:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/erste-zeit/id393326346

Julian L. wrote in post #964556:

It’d be interesting if AssociationProxy added in pluralised attribute
names as easy go-to’s for mappings, hey?

No. What would be the point?

for example:

department.courses.course_names

(yields the same result as:…)

department.courses.map{|course| course.course_name}

Why? So you don’t have to think about what you’re doing? Or is there a
good reason that escapes me?


Buy my new album! 16 Sep 2010:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/erste-zeit/id393326346

Cool! Nice to see other musicians here.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

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