From: Brad Phelan <bradphelan@...>
Date: 2007-07-18T04:50:14+09:00
Subject: Re: possibly bulletproof eval()

Giles Bowkett wrote:
>> ActiveRecord has the write_attribute and read_attribute methods
>> which is a better choice for what you are doing. You can also
>> use [] and []= as aliases for write_attribute and read_attribute
> 
> It's a class method which creates new instances. I don't think you can
> get to write_attribute that way, because it's a private method.
> 

Not a problem! Just use use [] and []=  public aliases for the protected 
methods.

 From the RDoc for ActiveRecord.

http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html#M000402

Public Instance Methods
-----------------------

[](attr_name)

Returns the value of the attribute identified by attr_name after it has 
been typecast (for example, "2004-12-12" in a data column is cast to a 
date object, like Date.new(2004, 12, 12)). (Alias for the protected 
read_attribute method).

[ show source ]

       # File lib/active_record/base.rb, line 1489
1489:       def [](attr_name)
1490:         read_attribute(attr_name)
1491:       end

[]=(attr_name, value)

Updates the attribute identified by attr_name with the specified value. 
(Alias for the protected write_attribute method).

[ show source ]

       # File lib/active_record/base.rb, line 1495
1495:       def []=(attr_name, value)
1496:         write_attribute(attr_name, value)
1497:       end


--
Brad Phelan
http://xtargets.com