From: Sammy Larbi <sam@...>
Date: 2007-01-18T04:04:04+09:00
Subject: Re: ActiveRecord find_by_*() - how does it work?

Yes, you can write method_missing method that can handle that... though 
I haven't dug into the source of Active Record, so it may accomplish the 
goal differently.


Eduardo Scoz wrote:
> Hi guys!
>
> I've been trying to understand how the find_by_*() method on
> ActiveRecord works, but couldn't find anything that could help. I think
> that you guys can probably help me on that.
>
> On Active Record, you can make a call like
>     user.find_by_first_name_and_last_name("eduardo"...)
> and this will generate the sql to send to the database.
>
> But how does that method gets created? ActiveRecord doesn't know what I
> want to find until I actually make the call, and the number of different
> combinations of parameters would probably be infinite for it to be
> created during the object initialization, so (I imagine) the method must
> be created __AFTER__ it was called.
>
> So my question is, is it possible for an object to receive a call to a
> method that doesn't exist, not throw a NoMethodError, and respond to
> that call?
>
> I hope my question makes sense! :)
>
> Thank you!!!
>
>