# Save! neither saves nor raises error **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 17, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444 "2010-08-17T21:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/1 "2010-08-17T21:42:32Z")
I don’t like this. This makes me grumpy, and I’ve even already had my morning coffee. obs[0] is a PremiseObservation, save! completed without error, yet nothing was written to the db. This is a serious ass-biter: irb(main):057:0\> PremiseObservation.count =\> 0 irb(main):058:0\> obs = PremiseObservation.get\_premise\_observations(premise) ; obs.size =\> 320 irb(main):059:0\> obs[0].is\_a?(PremiseObservation) =\> true irb(main):060:0\> obs[0].save! =\> true irb(main):061:0\> PremiseObservation.count =\> 0 FTW? Full disclosure: PremiseObservation.get\_premise\_observations() constructs its data through a (massive) find\_by\_sql() query, but whose SELECT takes pains to match the PremiseObservation schema. I could understand if obs[0] was tagged readonly as a result, but it’s not: irb(main):062:0\> obs[0].readonly? =\> false How can save! complete without error and yet not save anything? Either I’ve overlooked some key piece of documentation or else this is a bug. Which is it? - ff ps:I’m sure I can work around this by creating a virgin PremiseObservation and copying each field over into it. That’s a PITA, but manageable. pps: bash$ rake about (in /Users/ff/Developer/dev) About your application’s environment Ruby version 1.9.2 (x86\_64-darwin10.4.0) RubyGems version 1.3.7 Rack version 1.2 Rails version 3.0.0.rc Active Record version 3.0.0.rc Action Pack version 3.0.0.rc Active Resource version 3.0.0.rc Action Mailer version 3.0.0.rc Active Support version 3.0.0.rc Application root /Users/ff/Developer/bd Environment development ---
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/2 "2010-08-17T22:14:47Z")
On Aug 17, 8:42 pm, Fearless F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > How can save! complete without error and yet not save anything? Either > I’ve overlooked some key piece of documentation or else this is a bug. > Which is it? You’ve got it out of find\_by\_sql so rails thinks its an existing row. Furthermore rails doesn’t think the object has changed since you retrieved it from the database, so it shortcircuits the save (since from its point of view there is nothing to save) Fred ---
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/3 "2010-08-17T22:31:50Z")
Frederick C. wrote: > You’ve got it out of find\_by\_sql so rails thinks its an existing row. > Furthermore rails doesn’t think the object has changed since you > retrieved it from the database, so it shortcircuits the save (since > from its point of view there is nothing to save) > > Fred Fred: Your explanation makes sense. If this is not a bug in ActiveRecord, then there IS a bug in the documentation – it has to be one or the other. This is new territory for me: is there a writeup on how to properly report a documentation bug? A second (and lesser) question: is there a way to force a save? That would save me creating and copying a new one. Thanks. - ff ---
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/4 "2010-08-17T23:32:04Z")
On Aug 17, 9:31 pm, Fearless F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Your explanation makes sense. If this is not a bug in ActiveRecord, > then there IS a bug in the documentation – it has to be one or the > other. This is new territory for me: is there a writeup on how to > properly report a documentation bug? I’m not sure that’s true - you’re doing something that is really rather strange. I’d get in touch with the docrails folks - ask around in #rails- contrib > A second (and lesser) question: is there a way to force a save? That > would save me creating and copying a new one. in this particular case you don’t just need to mark the record as dirty, you need to mark the record as being a new record. As far as I know the only way to do that is to set the new\_record instance variable. Personally I’d take the need to muddle with AR internals as a hint not to do this. Fred ---
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/5 "2010-08-18T18:36:34Z")
Quoting Fearless F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > =\> 320 > irb(main):059:0\> obs[0].is\_a?(PremiseObservation) > =\> true > irb(main):060:0\> obs[0].save! > =\> true > irb(main):061:0\> PremiseObservation.count > =\> 0 Try ‘obs[0].touch’. Quoting the documentation at [http://rails.rubyonrails.org/:](http://rails.rubyonrails.org/:) touch(attribute = nil) Saves the record with the updated\_at/on attributes set to the current time. If the save fails because of validation errors, an ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid exception is raised. If an attribute name is passed, that attribute is used for the touch instead of the updated\_at/on attributes. Examples: product.touch # updates updated\_at product.touch(:designed\_at) # updates the designed\_at attribute HTH, Jeffrey ---
**Author:** ![fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@fearless\_fool](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fearless_fool)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/save-neither-saves-nor-raises-error/193444/6 "2010-08-18T19:25:23Z")
Jeffrey L. Taylor wrote: > Try ‘obs[0].touch’. Quoting the documentation at > [http://rails.rubyonrails.org/:](http://rails.rubyonrails.org/:) Jeffrey: That’s a great idea, but didn’t work: irb(main):034:0\> PremiseObservation.count =\> 0 irb(main):035:0\> obs.touch =\> false irb(main):036:0\> obs.save! =\> true irb(main):037:0\> PremiseObservation.count =\> 0 I’ve filed a ticket on this, either as an AR or a documentation bug. We’ll see what the core team has to say about it.