From: laredotornado <laredotornado@...>
Date: 2008-02-10T11:09:56+09:00
Subject: Right way to access an array passed as an argument?

Hi,

In my user model class, I have:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
  def self.search(search)
        conditions = []
        if !
search[:user_type_id].is_empty?                               # line
26
                conditions << 'user_type_id = ?' <<
"#{search[:user_type_id]}"
        end
        if !search[:ship_to_first_name].is_empty?
                conditions << 'ship_to_first_name LIKE ?' <<
"%#{search[:ship_to_first_name]}%"
        end
        if !search[:ship_to_last_name].is_empty?
                conditions << 'ship_to_last_name LIKE ?' <<
"%#{search[:ship_to_last_name]}%"
        end
        find(:all, :conditions => conditions )
  end

I am passing my "params" array to this function.  The array params
contains a hidden field, "user_type_id," that is always defined.  But
when I execute the above, I get the error


You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.is_empty?
RAILS_ROOT: /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/easyrx
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
app/models/user.rb:26:in `search'
app/controllers/super_admin/subscriber_controller.rb:15:in
`searchresults'


so I'm thinking "search[:user_type_id]" is not the right way to access
the parameter value.  If I try ":search[:user_type_id]", I also get
the error.

Thanks for any help, - Dave