exists?(id = nil) public

Returns true if a record exists in the table that matches the id or conditions given, or false otherwise. The argument can take five forms:

  • Integer - Finds the record with this primary key.

  • String - Finds the record with a primary key corresponding to this string (such as '5').

  • Array - Finds the record that matches these find-style conditions (such as ['color = ?', 'red']).

  • Hash - Finds the record that matches these find-style conditions (such as {:color => 'red'}).

  • No args - Returns false if the table is empty, true otherwise.

For more information about specifying conditions as a Hash or Array, see the Conditions section in the introduction to ActiveRecord::Base.

Note: You can’t pass in a condition as a string (like name = 'Jamie'), since it would be sanitized and then queried against the primary key column, like id = 'name = \'Jamie\''.

Examples

Person.exists?(5)
Person.exists?('5')
Person.exists?(:name => "David")
Person.exists?(['name LIKE ?', "%#{query}%"])
Person.exists?
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August 11, 2011
2 thanks

More AREL compliant style is also possible

Code example

Person.where(:name => 'David').exists?