connection

The MySQL database adapter extends this and allows you to call

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.current_database

to get the current databases name. Useful when you are actively changing the database you are connected to and sometimes need to check the current one.

http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/MysqlAdapter/current_database

It's possible to execute raw SQL over the currently established connection for a model.

You may configure Rails to use different databases for different models. To make sure you are querying the correct database you may do the following:

MyModel.connection.execute("UPDATE my_models SET beer='free' WHERE 1")

Get the current database name when using Sqlite:

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.instance_variable_get(:@config)[:database].split('/').last

If you're using PostgreSQL and you've changed schema, sometimes you need to know what schema you're in.

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.schema_search_path.split(",").first

Don't store a connection in a variable, because another thread might try to use it when it's already checked back in into the connection pool. See: ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ConnectionPool

connection = ActiveRecord::Base.connection

threads = (1..100).map do
  Thread.new do
    begin
      10.times do
        connection.execute("SELECT SLEEP(1)")  # WRONG
        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT SLEEP(1)")  # CORRECT
      end
      puts "success"
    rescue => e
      puts e.message
    end
  end
end

threads.each(&:join)