Time to stretch.
I want to acheive a find that returns a computed value as a column. I
don’t know SQL (thanks to Rails hiding me from it up until now) and I
don’t know if Rails will be able to help. Here’s my model.
class Trackable < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :time_entries, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :time_chargers, :through => :time_entries, :source
=> :owner, :uniq => true
end
Of course I can do:
trackables = Trackable.find(:all)
Now assume that trackables[0].time_chargers
would return 3 people: Fred Flinstone, Wilma Flinstone, Barny
Rubble
I can then get how many time_chargers there are by doing:
trackables[0].time_chargers.size # => 3
I want that value computed by the original SQL query returned from
find, so additional queries aren’t created.
Further I want to be able to do the same search with conditions
added to time_chargers at the time of the find.
Something like:
trackables = Trackable.find :all, with_scope =>
“time_chargers.last_name == Flinstone”
So now I get:
trackables[0].time_chargers.size # => 2
again without an additional SQL query.
I suppose if I have to dive down to SQL that’s ok, but mixing Rails
generated SQL and hand crafted SQL feels so wrong. That’s and I don’t
really know SQL. Where should I begin?
Ryan