ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)

airplaneman19 picture airplaneman19 · Jan 11, 2012 · Viewed 28.6k times · Source

I'm very new to Rails, MVC, and CRUD, and I'm trying to use the update method to change the amount of votes on a post. I have the following code in my Posts Controller update method:

def update
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])

    if params[:vote] == 'up'
        @post.update_column(:ups => @post[:ups] + 1)
    elsif params[:vote] == 'down'
        @post.update_column(:downs => @post[:downs] + 1)
    end

    flash[:notice] = "Thanks for voting! This helps us determine important issues in our schools."

    redirect_to 'Posts#index'
end

and I have the following code in my routes.rb:

OpenMCJC::Application.routes.draw do
  root :to => 'posts#index'
  resources :posts
  match '/posts/:id/:vote', :to => 'posts#update'
end

After navigating to "/posts/3/up", it throws the following error:

ArgumentError in PostsController#update

wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)

The request parameters according to the page are as such:

{"id"=>"3",
"vote"=>"up"}

Can you help me figure out what went wrong?

Answer

Mischa picture Mischa · Jan 11, 2012

update_column takes two arguments. You are only passing one.

Instead of:

@post.update_column(:ups => @post[:ups] + 1)

Try:

@post.update_column(:ups, @post[:ups] + 1)

This may seem like two arguments:

:ups => @post[:ups] + 1

but it's actually one hash.

With the more commonly used update_attributes, you can pass a hash:

@post.update_attributes(:ups => @post[:ups] + 1)