ActiveRecord + Pry confusion

Question

This is confusing me no end.

In a rake task, I am saving new records on the DailyScore model with the following code:

def save_record_as_daily_score_object(data)
    @ds = DailyScore.where(date: data[:date]).first_or_create!  
    @ds.update!(data)
    binding.pry
end

The pry output is as follows:

[10] pry(main)> data
=> {:date=>"2015-09-02",
:mail=>-0.6,
:times=>-7.1,
:telegraph=>-2.2,
:guardian=>-4.0,
:express=>-0.1,
:independent=>-3.2,
:average=>-3.4}  

[11] pry(main)> @ds
=> #<DailyScore:0x000001098121a8
 id: 4975,
 mail: nil,
 telegraph: nil,
 times: nil,
 average: nil,
 guardian: nil,
 independent: nil,
 express: nil,
 date: nil,
 created_at: 2016-05-16 13:10:03 UTC,
 updated_at: 2016-05-16 13:10:03 UTC>

 [12] pry(main)> @ds.average
 => -3.4
 [13] pry(main)> @ds.date
  => "2015-09-02"
 [14] pry(main)> @ds.persisted?
  => true
 [15] pry(main)> DailyScore.last
=> #<DailyScore:0x000001086810d8
 id: 4975,
 mail: nil,
 telegraph: nil,
 times: nil,
 average: nil,
 guardian: nil,
 independent: nil,
 express: nil,
 date: nil,
 created_at: 2016-05-16 13:10:03 UTC,
 updated_at: 2016-05-16 13:10:03 UTC>
 [16] pry(main)> DailyScore.last.average
=> nil

What is going on here? Why can't Pry access my variable attributes? And is the record actually being saved or not?

UPDATE: Checking in the console, the behaviour is the same if I simply create a new object. I'm using the Padrino framework, and a Postgres db.

2.0.0 :001 > ds = DailyScore.new(date:"2016-01-01")
 => #<DailyScore id: nil, mail: nil, telegraph: nil, times: nil, average: nil, guardian: nil, independent: nil, express: nil, date: nil, created_at: nil, updated_at: nil>
2.0.0 :002 > ds.date
 => "2016-01-01"
2.0.0 :003 > ds
 => #<DailyScore id: nil, mail: nil, telegraph: nil, times: nil, average: nil, guardian: nil, independent: nil, express: nil, date: nil, created_at: nil, updated_at: nil>

Is it a problem with the model? Here is the original migration:

006_create_daily_scores.rb

class CreateDailyScores < ActiveRecord::Migration
   def self.up
     create_table :daily_scores do |t|
       t.float :average
       t.datetime :date
       t.float :express
       t.float :independent
       t.float :guardian
       t.float :telegraph
       t.float :mail
       t.float :times
       t.timestamps
     end
   end

   def self.down
     drop_table :daily_scores
   end
 end

Have now added another column day:date - using :date instead of :datetime - to check if it was a quirk with :datetime, but behaviour is the same.

pry(main)> @ds.changes => {} - both before and after the update! call — Jonathan_W, May 16 '16 at 13:58
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/112061/discussion-between-jonathan-w-and-anthony-e). — Jonathan_W, May 16 '16 at 14:04
@PetrGazarov That's a good point. first_or_create isn't threadsafe. — Anthony E, May 16 '16 at 14:05
Where exactly is the `save_record_as_daily_score_object` method defined? In the rake file? In a model? I don't observe this behavior under rails if the method resides in model or in rake. But judging from the tags, your scenario might be more complex? — Matouš Borák, May 16 '16 at 15:39
Have moved save_record_as_daily_score_object to tasks.rake, and changed first_or_create! to find_or_create_by, but still same behaviour. @PetrGazarov could you suggest another replacement for first_or_create! ? — Jonathan_W, May 17 '16 at 13:30
I will try replacing :datetime with another format to see if the behaviour is fixed: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3928275/in-ruby-on-rails-whats-the-difference-between-datetime-timestamp-time-and-da — Jonathan_W, May 17 '16 at 13:46
Did you define `attr_accessor` in your model by any chance? If so, you should remove it because it is overriding the attributes. — Petr Gazarov, May 21 '16 at 16:46
Amazing @PetrGazarov! Please make this into an answer so I can mark as correct. And thanks so much for coming back to this, I was on the point of despair as my whole project was on hold. — Jonathan_W, May 21 '16 at 16:55

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '16 at 17:24

This happens because you called attr_accessor in your model with your model attributes, which overrode default accessors provided by Rails (the accessors are called by update and new methods). Note this doc, for reference, if you do want to override accessors one day.

Removing attr_accessor from your model will do the trick!

ActiveRecord + Pry confusion

1 Answers1