Setting ActiveRecord model attribute

Question

I'm trying to override a initialize in a ActiveRecord model, I just saw one thing that I could not understand what was happening there. I wrote this initialize method:

def initialize params={}
    super params
    @data = Date.strptime(params[:data], '%d/%m/%Y') if not params[:data].nil?
    self.number = generate_contract_number(params[:unit]) if not params[:unit].nil?
    self
end

Given the generate_contract_number works and Date.strptime works as well. My question is: Why when I do self.number= the number is set and when I do @number= the number is not set. But when I do just the same with @contract_date= it works, and the self.contract_date= is set automatically?

Thanks

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

Don't override ActiveRecord's initialize; use an after_initialize callback.

For more details, see this SO post.

I don't see anything about @contract_date, so I'm not sure what you mean. Without the model definition it's tough to say more, we don't know what @data or @contract_date is, or what "working" means. Bear in mind that an ActiveRecord's DB attributes aren't simple @-style attributes.

Setting ActiveRecord model attribute

1 Answers1