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method

update_attribute

Importance_5
Ruby on Rails latest stable (v6.1.7.7) - 5 notes - Class: ActiveRecord::Base

Method deprecated or moved

This method is deprecated or moved on the latest stable version. The last existing version (v2.3.8) is shown here.

These similar methods exist in v6.1.7.7:

update_attribute(name, value) public

Updates a single attribute and saves the record without going through the normal validation procedure. This is especially useful for boolean flags on existing records. The regular update_attribute method in Base is replaced with this when the validations module is mixed in, which it is by default.

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August 11, 2008
8 thanks

Validations

update_attribute will not perform validations checks when the Validation module is included.

If you want to perform validations when updating, use update_attributes instead.

October 22, 2009 - (>= v2.1.0)
4 thanks

Update statement won't include all attributes with ActiveRecord::Dirty

With the addition of ActiveRecord::Dirty, the update statement will only feature changed columns, as opposed to the comment of railsmonk below.

February 3, 2009
4 thanks

This method will still rewrite all the values of the table

Even if you update only a small boolean flag on your record, update_attribute will generate an UPDATE statement that will include all the fields of the record, including huge BLOB and TEXT columns. Take this in account.

April 3, 2010 - (>= v2.2.1)
3 thanks

Careful with this method.

Despite the name and description, it will actually update any changed fields on the model rather than just the desired attribute.

def update_attribute(name, value)
  send(name.to_s + '=', value)
  save(false)
end

See? Use update_all and pass in the model ID as a condition, instead.

August 19, 2014
0 thanks

callbacks

As a note, AFAICT, this skips “validations” but does still run all callbacks still [like after_save, etc.] So if you’re looking for something that just updates see here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/7243777/32453