From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2005-11-09T01:12:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Can ActiveRecord handle columns containing spaces?

Anthony Hrvojic wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm using Rails 0.14.3 (upgraded this morning in case it would solve
> this) with an existing SQL Server database and I'm running into a
> problem where one of my models fails to instantiate seemingly due to a
> single column containing a space in its name, which I guess interferes
> with dynamic attribute generation.
>
> The exception I get in my browser looks something like this:
>
> (eval):1:in `class_eval': compile error
> (eval):1: formal argument cannot be a constant
> def Spaced Column; raise NoMethodError, 'missing attribute: Spaced
> Column', caller unless @attributes.has_key?('Spaced Column');
> (v=@attributes['Spaced Column']) &&
> ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ColumnWithIdentity.string_to_time(v);
> end
>
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1545:in
> `class_eval'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1545:in
> `class_eval'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1545:in
> `define_read_method'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1530:in
> `define_read_methods'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1528:in
> `each'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1528:in
> `define_read_methods'
>
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.0/lib/active_record/base.
rb:1478:in
> `method_missing'
>
> Modifying the schema is probably not an option, so I'm hoping someone
> may have a different approach.
>
> Thanks!

Ypu might get away with creating a view with a different name for this
column.  IIRC you can insert into simple views such as

create view foo(col1,col2)
as
select colx, coly
from some_table

It's generally not a good idea to have spaces in identifiers, even if they
are column names - I guess you came to a similar conclusion already... :-)

Kind regards

    robert