find vs find_by vs where

Question

I am new to rails. What I see that there are a lot of ways to find a record:

1. find_by_<columnname>(<columnvalue>)
2. find(:first, :conditions => { <columnname> => <columnvalue> }
3. where(<columnname> => <columnvalue>).first

And it looks like all of them end up generating exactly the same SQL. Also, I believe the same is true for finding multiple records:

1. find_all_by_<columnname>(<columnvalue>)
2. find(:all, :conditions => { <columnname> => <columnvalue> }
3. where(<columnname> => <columnvalue>)

Is there a rule of thumb or recommendation on which one to use?

Answer 1

where returns ActiveRecord::Relation

Now take a look at find_by implementation:

def find_by
  where(*args).take
end

As you can see find_by is the same as where but it returns only one record. This method should be used for getting 1 record and where should be used for getting all records with some conditions.