Different Ways to Set Attributes in ActiveRecord (Rails 6)
January 11, 2020
In 2014, David Verhasselt wrote an excellent blogpost on the various methods ActiveRecord provides us to update records, how they differ, and their unique side-effects.
I’ve referenced it many times over the years when reading codebases, and determining the best way to update a particular attribute.
In this post, I’d like to bring his blogpost up-to-date for Rails 6.
Cheat Sheet
| Method | Default Accessor | Saved to DB | Validations | Callbacks | Touches updated_at |
Readonly check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
attribue(s)= |
Yes | No | - | - | - | - |
write_attribute |
No | No | - | - | - | - |
assign_attributes |
Yes | No | - | - | - | - |
update_attribute |
Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
update_attributes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
update |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
update_column(s) |
Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
User::update |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
User::update_all |
No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
User::insert(_all) |
No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
User::upsert(_all) |
No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
As of Rails 6, update_attributes has been depreciated in favour of update.