in_order_of

Applies an ORDER BY clause based on a given column, ordered and filtered by a specific set of values.

User.in_order_of(:id, [1, 5, 3])
# SELECT "users".* FROM "users"
#   WHERE "users"."id" IN (1, 5, 3)
#   ORDER BY CASE
#     WHEN "users"."id" = 1 THEN 1
#     WHEN "users"."id" = 5 THEN 2
#     WHEN "users"."id" = 3 THEN 3
#   END ASC

column can point to an enum column; the actual query generated may be different depending on the database adapter and the column definition.

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum :status, [ :active, :archived ]
end

Conversation.in_order_of(:status, [:archived, :active])
# SELECT "conversations".* FROM "conversations"
#   WHERE "conversations"."status" IN (1, 0)
#   ORDER BY CASE
#     WHEN "conversations"."status" = 1 THEN 1
#     WHEN "conversations"."status" = 0 THEN 2
#   END ASC

values can also include nil.

Conversation.in_order_of(:status, [nil, :archived, :active])
# SELECT "conversations".* FROM "conversations"
#   WHERE ("conversations"."status" IN (1, 0) OR "conversations"."status" IS NULL)
#   ORDER BY CASE
#     WHEN "conversations"."status" IS NULL THEN 1
#     WHEN "conversations"."status" = 1 THEN 2
#     WHEN "conversations"."status" = 0 THEN 3
#   END ASC