How can I overwrite a getter method in an ActiveRecord model?

oyvindhauge picture oyvindhauge · Feb 17, 2014 · Viewed 47.4k times · Source

I'm trying to overwrite a getter method for an ActiveRecord model. I have an attribute called name in the model Category, and I'd like to be able to do something like this:

def name
  name_trans || name
end

If name_trans attribute is not nil, then return it, else return name attribute. How would I do this?

This should then be called normally like this:

@category.name

Answer

Wonsup Lee picture Wonsup Lee · Feb 6, 2015

The Rails Style Guide recommends using self[:attr] over read_attribute(:attr).

You can use it like this:

def name
  name_trans || self[:name]
end