How do I stored a date in my model?

Question

I’m using Rails 4.2.3 and MySql 5.5.37. I have a model based on the following db table …

mysql> desc user_objects;
+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id         | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| user_id    | int(11)      | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| object     | varchar(255) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| day        | date         | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| total      | int(11)      | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| created_at | datetime     | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| updated_at | datetime     | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

In my controller, I’m trying to process parameters submitted from a form and so I use this …

def create
  @current_user = User.find(session["user_id"])
  …
  puts user_object_params
  @user_object = UserObject.new(user_object_params)
  puts @user_object.object 
  puts @user_object.day 
  puts @user_object.total

Even though the first “puts” line prints out “{"object"=>"3", "day"=>"02/28/2016", "total"=>"77"}”, the third puts line (“@user_object.day”) prints out nothing. What do I need to do to get my date object created in my model via the “new” call?

Edit: Here is the definition of user_object in the file "./app/models/user_object.rb".

class UserObject < ActiveRecord::Base

  validates :day, :presence => true
  validates_numericality_of :total
  validates :object, :presence => true

  def self.find_total_by_user_object_month_and_year(user_id, object, month, year)
    sum(:total, :conditions => ['user_id = ?', user_id, 'object = ?', object, 'month(day) = ?', month, 'year(day) = ?', year])
  end

  def self.find_total_by_user_object_and_year(user_id, object, year)
    sum(:total, :conditions => ['user_id = ?', user_id, 'object = ?', object, 'year(day) = ?', year])
  end

end

Edit 2: In response to the answer given, including this in my controller

  puts user_object_params[:day] 
  @user_object.day = user_object_params[:day]
  puts @user_object.day

Prints out "02/23/2016" for teh first "puts" but then nothing is printed for the second "puts."

Answer 1

it looks like you are getting the params correct, However to check if the issue is in the UserObject.new(user_object_params) part, what you can try is try to individually assign values

@user_object = UserObject.new
@user_object.object = user_object_params[:object]
@user_object.day = user_object_params[:day]
@user_object.total = user_object_params[:total]

and then try to print the values.

I have a feeling that the attribute object is conflicting with some rails internal attributes.

to test this, you can individually assign value except object attr. or remove the object key in the hash.

Answer 2

Going to open an answer, but expect it will require some iteration.

Assuming @user_object.object and @user_object.total are behaving correctly (you need to confirm this), I suspect you're experiencing finicky Ruby Date (or related) problems.

Make sure that (a) @user_object.day is defined (in your migration) in the format that you want (are you storing a String, Date, or DateTime?) and that (b) user_object_params[:day] is formatted in a way that matches the type defined in your migration.

There are well-know subleties (read, differences) is how Ruby and Rails handle Dates and DateTimes. Maybe this is the root of your problem.

To convert a date string into a DateTime, you're going to have to do something like:

DateTime.strptime("06/18/2013", "%m/%d/%Y")

as discussed here. So, possibly before doing @user_object.new(user_object_params), you might need to do something like:

user_object_params[:day] = DateTime.strptime(user_object_params[:day], "%m/%d/%Y")

Fishing here, but thought it might help.