String attributes not showing up in view

Rails
1

Hi,

I have a user model with attributes first_name, last_name and email.

In the view I’m looping though all the users and for each user
printing out the email add the full_name (full_name is a function in
the user model that returns both first and last names). The email
prints but the names do not and it’s really weird. I have checked in
the script/console and verified that the values are actually inside
the user object (I only have one user object created with the
migration).

What’s even weirder is that when I call User.find_by_email “blah” and
it gives me back my user, the output in the console shows all the
fields, shows the first_name and last_name values as well. But in the
console if I do u.first_name, I get a nil return. If I do u.email, I
get the “blah” return. Any idea where I can start looking for a
problem?

In the user.index.html.erb

<% @users.each do |user| %>

<%= user.full_name %> <%= user.email %> <% end %>

and in my User model:

def full_name
@first_name + " " + @last_name
end

Thanks in advance

2

what’s with the @first_name, @last_name?

3

What do you mean? What’s wrong with them?

4

On 8 June 2010 05:18, Ali [email protected] wrote:

and in my User model:

def full_name
@first_name + " " + @last_name
end

Parameters of a model aren’t assigned to instance variables, they’re
accessed through method calls. So drop the “@” signs. While you’re at
it, you can get rid of the string concatenation:

def full_name
[first_name, last_name].join(" ")
end

…now, if you’re missing a first or last name, you don’t get extra
white-space padding (and if you want to include ‘title’ or
‘middle_name’ you’re not creating n+1 strings).

5

On Jun 8, 3:10 am, Michael P. [email protected] wrote:

def full_name
[first_name, last_name].join(" ")
end

…now, if you’re missing a first or last name, you don’t get extra
white-space padding (and if you want to include ‘title’ or
‘middle_name’ you’re not creating n+1 strings).

Never thought of that. Nice tip. Thanks.

6

pepe wrote:

On Jun 8, 3:10�am, Michael P. [email protected] wrote:

��def full_name
�� �[first_name, last_name].join(" ")
��end

…now, if you’re missing a first or last name, you don’t get extra
white-space padding

Actually, I believe you do, unless you compact the array first (posting
from iPhone away from irb right now, so can’t verify).

(and if you want to include ‘title’ or
‘middle_name’ you’re not creating n+1 strings).

Never thought of that. Nice tip. Thanks.

Indeed. I find myself using String#+ very rarely – join and “#{ }” are
both more efficient and no harder to type.

Best,

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

7

Oh ok. Did not know that. Thanks!

After I got rid of the ‘@’ part they were still returning nil. I had an
attr_accessor :first_name, :last_name defined. Things worked after
getting
rid of that. I guess having attr_Accessor with the same names overrides
the
method calls or something?

Thanks again!

8

On Jun 9, 1:16 am, Ali A. [email protected] wrote:

Oh ok. Did not know that. Thanks!

After I got rid of the ‘@’ part they were still returning nil. I had an
attr_accessor :first_name, :last_name defined. Things worked after getting
rid of that. I guess having attr_Accessor with the same names overrides the
method calls or something?

You don’t need attr_accessor for attributes from the database -
attr_accessor will overwrite (or prevent the generation of) the
accessors active record provides.

Fred

9

On 8 June 2010 13:56, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

from iPhone away from irb right now, so can’t verify).
100% correct… sorry - my real methods do compact before the join…
just not when I write them in Gmail! :slight_smile: