# Using associations or better avoiding? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 21, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901 "2007-12-21T21:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/1 "2007-12-21T21:42:01Z")
i am wondering if its good to use associations where possible or if its better to avoid them … my concern is: it could lower the performance of my application (because new methods are added to the models which are not all necessary for me, etc.) as i am new to ror development i need some expertise advice on this … can it lead to problem when using associations everywhere where possible? thanks for your opinion… ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/2 "2007-12-21T21:53:49Z")
Associations provide a higher level of abstraction for your app. How does adding new methods affect performance? You can optimize slow queries with multiple joins by using sql instead of ActiveRecord finders. There are also other techniques to speed up the app. As a beginner I would not worry. As one of my incompetent manager used to say: “Code like a wind”. LOL. On Dec 21, 2007 12:42 PM, Michal G. \< removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\> wrote: > i am wondering if its good to use associations where possible or if its > better to avoid them … > > my concern is: it could lower the performance of my application (because > new methods are added to the models which are not all necessary for me, > etc.) – [http://www.rubyplus.org/](http://www.rubyplus.org/) Free Ruby Screencasts ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/3 "2007-12-21T21:58:38Z")
thanks for your quick reply … so lets say i have a User model which has the following attributes… firstname lastname creator\_id updater\_id reports\_to so the user was created by a user … and the last modification be done by another user … then each user reports to one user … moreover the users have friends, send messages, write blog entries, etc. - would you really add for all this own associations? also e.g. for creator and updater - which are e.g. only used on one place? - i also load the current logged in user on each request … would this affect performance if more associations are here? i am just wondering, because the project is expecting to have 10.000 uniques a day. ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/4 "2007-12-21T22:22:30Z")
> Remember what they say about premature optimization 🙂 ? > > Fred yeah you are right … but thats why i am asking … if its not that big deal then i will use it all the way 🙂 because its a great feature! ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/5 "2007-12-21T22:27:52Z")
associations are one of the benefits of using rails. You should be happy to be able to use them! Adam ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/6 "2007-12-21T22:16:40Z")
On 21 Dec 2007, at 20:58, Michal G. wrote: > so the user was created by a user … and the last modification be done > by another user … then each user reports to one user … moreover the > users have friends, send messages, write blog entries, etc. > > - would you really add for all this own associations? also e.g. for > creator and updater - which are e.g. only used on one place? probably > - i also load the current logged in user on each request … would this > affect performance if more associations are here? Having an association or not isn’t going to affect the loading a single record > i am just wondering, because the project is expecting to have 10.000 > uniques a day. Remember what they say about premature optimization 🙂 ? Fred ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 11:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/7 "2007-12-22T11:27:47Z")
thanks… i wasnt so sure about this. now i am using associations everywhere 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gabru](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gabru)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-associations-or-better-avoiding/123901/8 "2007-12-22T00:34:57Z")
> it could lower the performance of my application (because > new methods are added to the models which are not all necessary for me Just to be clear, the number of methods in a class has neglible impact on performance, so I think your concerns about associations are maybe based on a false premise. ///ark