Trying to replace some .find calls with better code

Rails
1

Hi all,

This forum has been very helpful in the past so I figured I’d try and
ask for some help on some (yet again) rather “newbie” stuff again.

I currently have the following DB Schema (Two Tables Listed here):

Users Table (user has_many children)

id
login
…

Children Table (children belongs_to user)

id
first_name
last_name
is_lost (boolean)

Users Controller show method:

def show
@user = User.find_by_login(params[:id])

@lost_children = @user.children.find(:all, :conditions => “is_lost =
‘t’”)

…
end

This WORKS. However, I’m sure I can cut down doing a find query by doing
something like this:

@lost_children = @user.children(:is_lost => true)

The above doesn’t work for me (as I just made it up out of the blue).
But there must be something of this nature that can aid in avoiding
making another DB call. I’ve tried searching for a while now but have
had little luck.

At the very least, any suggestions on how to make that code
cleaner/better?

Many thanks in advance!

-Tony

P.S. Please let me know if you need more code or explanations.

2

How about looking into named_scope.

in your Child model:

named_scope :lost,
:conditions => “is_lost = ‘t’”

You can then do this:

@user = User.find_by_login(params[:id])
@lost_children = @user.children.lost

/franz

3

Forgot to mention that named_scope is native Rails 2.1 or
later.

If you’re using an earlier version, you’ll need to install the
has_finder plugin.

4

Try:

@lost_children = @user.children.select {|c| c.is_lost}

-Roy