Why belongs_to/has_many cannot overwrite methods with the same name

When you use a belongs_to or has_many macro you might be surprised that the methods that it generates does not override a method with the same name. Take this example:

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  
  def user
    "foo"
  end
  
  belongs_to :user
  
end

Project.new.user still returns "foo".

The reason for this is that what belongs_to does is actually this:

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  include FeatureMethods
  
  def user
    "foo"
  end
  
end

module Project::FeatureMethods

  def user
    # association getter goes here
  end
  
end

I'm sorry.

Henning Koch

makandra.de

Say thanks3

Last edit

2025-03-24

Felix Eschey

License

Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.

Posted by Henning Koch to makandra dev (2014-03-12 12:21)