Why does this create statement ignore values for populating database records?

Question

My problem: null values in the database after a create statement, which seems otherwise legitimate. Ruby is simply ignoring my data values...which is baffling.

The situation: I am trying to import CSV data using a rake task. Here is the model I am trying to populate (using mysql), desc companies:

mysql> describe companies;
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field        | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id           | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| company_name | varchar(100) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| operator_num | int(11)      | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| created_at   | datetime     | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| updated_at   | datetime     | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

Company_name and operator_num are the first two data fields in a row of data in my CSV file. Here is the Rails model for this (the table was defined by a migration):

class Companies < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :facilities, dependent: :destroy
  attr_accessor :company_name, :operator_num

end

Here is this initial code for the task:

desc "Imports the CSV file into database"
task :import_cogcc => :environment do

    require 'csv'

    CSV.foreach('public/partial.csv', :headers => true) do |row|

        # create records in independent tables

        # create the Company object
        this_company_name = row['name'].strip!
        this_operator_num = row['operator_num']

        if !(Companies.exists?(:company_name => this_company_name))
          Companies.create(company_name: this_company_name, operator_num: this_operator_num)
        end
        thecompany = Companies.find(:first, :conditions => ["this_company_name = ?", this_company_name])
        company_id = thecompany.id

        # create the County object
(code continues from here....)

The purpose here is to create a Company record, then get the id for it to use as a foreign key; but the wierd thing is, the record gets created with null values for company_name and operator_num, despite the data is correct in the create statement.

Trying to troubleshoot, I replicated the behavior in the rails console:

irb(main):002:0> this_operator_num = 195
=> 195
irb(main):003:0> this_company_name = "44 CANYON LLC"
=> "44 CANYON LLC"
irb(main):004:0> Companies.create(company_name: this_company_name, operator_num: this_operator_num)
   (0.1ms)  BEGIN
  SQL (0.5ms)  INSERT INTO `companies` (`created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('2014-08-17 17:48:01', '2014-08-17 17:48:01')
   (23.5ms)  COMMIT
=> #<Companies id: 2, company_name: nil, operator_num: nil, created_at: "2014-08-17 17:48:01", updated_at: "2014-08-17 17:48:01">

This is just too bizarre: Ruby populates the timestamp fields, but ignores the data fields! Can anyone explain to me why this happens?

Just an aside: you are not following Rails conventions for active record naming. The class name should be singular (Company) for the table, companies. — lurker
– lurker, Commented Aug 17, 2014 at 18:12

apneadiving · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-17 18:10:40Z

4

You should remove the line where you define attr_accessor: it overrides db getters and setters in favor of virtual attributes

answered Aug 17, 2014 at 18:10

apneadiving

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