update_attribute, update_attributes and update_column (Ruby on Rails)

update_attribute

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.

Also note that

  • Validation is skipped.
  • Callbacks are invoked.
  • updated_at/updated_on column is updated if that column is available.
  • Updates all the attributes that are dirty in this object.

update_attributes

Updates all the attributes from the passed-in Hash and saves the record. If the object is invalid, the saving will fail and false will be returned.

Examples:

Object.update_attribute(:only_one_field, "Some Value")
Object.update_attributes(:field1 => "value", :field2 => "value2", :field3 => "value3")
Object.update_attributes(params[:user])

All of these will update an object in a database without having to explicitly tell AR to update.

update_attribute can update only one column.

 

Validation

Use update_attribute to skip validations.

update_attribute uses save(false) while update_attributes uses save (which means save(true)).

 

Callbacks

If perform_validation is false while calling save then it skips validation, and it also means that all the before_* callbacks associated with save.

 

Update attributes in database without saving

update_column(name, value)

Updates a single column in a database, without calling save. It will run SQL script in database: “UPDATE tablename SET name=value WHERE id=X”

  • Validation is skipped.
  • Callbacks are skipped.
  • Save method is NOT called, but it updates record in the database.
  • updated_at column is not updated (if the column is available).
  • Raises an ActiveRecordError when called on new objects, or when the name attribute is marked as readonly.

 

update_column is equivalent to update_columns(name => value), which can update multiple columns in database.

 

.attributes property

Use .attributes to update attributes of the model without saving it to a database.

@car = Car.new(:some_field=>'value', :another_field=>'value')
 
#
@car.attributes = {:title => 'Toyota', :year => 2005, :used=>false}
 
#other processing
..
 
#finally, save to DB
@car.save

 

Ref.
Discussions on StackOverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2778522/rails-update-attribute-vs-update-attributes

3 thoughts on “update_attribute, update_attributes and update_column (Ruby on Rails)”

  • Hunter Stevens says:

    Pleas update this post. You initially say that `update_attribute` updates the `updated_at` field (if present). You then later say that it DOES NOT update this field.

    • Anonymous says:

      in first case it is ‘update_ATTRIBUTE’ and in the seconda case it is ‘update_COLUMN’. Those are two different methods.
      I updated description of ‘update_column’ to make it more clear what it does.

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