#3984 rails does not handle columns that start with a number - Ruby on Rails

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#3984 ✓stale

rails does not handle columns that start with a number

Reported by Christopher Evans | February 17th, 2010 @ 08:37 PM

I have a database that I want to create a rails frontend for, and am attempting with rails 3.0.0beta. One of the tables has a column named 2_3. rails tries to create method accessors, and ruby wants them to be starting with [a-z_].

irb(main):001:0> Task.find(1)
=> #<Task id: 1, user: "cwevans", tid: 11464, comment: "", created_at: "2010-02-15 07:57:02", updated_at: "2010-02-15 07:57:02">
irb(main):002:0> Task.find(1).em7_ticket
=> #<Em7Ticket tid: 11464, Xid: 25135, Xtype: 0, Xname: "", aid: 0, roa_id: 25006, roa_lid: 0, class: 15, descr: "Duplicate VIP recap", severity: 4, status: 0, source: 45, date_create: "2010-01-26 15:26:01", user_create: "system", date_update: "2010-02-09 16:44:01", user_update: "system", assign: 34, assigned_to: "cwevans", resolution: 0, cause: 0, escalation: 2, hours_billed: 0.0, user_close: "", date_close: nil, close_age: "", auto_close: 0, master_tid: 0, 2_1: "- No Project -">
irb(main):003:0> Task.find(1).em7_ticket.task
SyntaxError: compile error
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:258: syntax error, unexpected tINTEGER
                 def 2_1?(*args)
                        ^
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:258: syntax error, unexpected ')', expecting '='
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:260: syntax error, unexpected kEND, expecting ')'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:260:in `define_attribute_methods'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:250:in `each'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:250:in `define_attribute_methods'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:249:in `each'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activemodel-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:249:in `define_attribute_methods'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:12:in `define_attribute_methods'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-3.0.0.beta/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:41:in `respond_to?'
   from /usr/local/lib/ruby/g

To test a similar case, I used rails 2.3.5

rails generate scaffold task 2_3:string
./script/generate scaffold task 2_3:string
[root@hold-dev-app01 attribute_number]# rake --trace db:migrate
(in /root/attribute_number)
 Invoke db:migrate (first_time)
 Invoke environment (first_time)
 Execute environment
 Execute db:migrate
rake aborted!
./db/migrate//20100217201534_create_tasks.rb:4: syntax error, unexpected tINTEGER, expecting tSTRING_CONTENT or tSTRING_DBEG or tSTRING_DVAR or tSTRING_END
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in load_without_new_constant_marking'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:inload'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:521:in new_constants_in'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:inload'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:373:in load_migration'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:369:inmigration'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:365:in migrate'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:486
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:560:incall'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:560:in ddl_transaction'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:136:intransaction'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:182:in transaction'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:560:inddl_transaction'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:485:in migrate'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:472:ineach'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:472:in migrate'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:400:inup'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/active_record/migration.rb:383:in migrate'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/tasks/databases.rake:116
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:incall'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in execute'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:ineach'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in execute'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:597:ininvoke_with_call_chain'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in synchronize'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:ininvoke_with_call_chain'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:583:in invoke'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2051:ininvoke_task'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in top_level'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:ineach'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in top_level'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:instandard_exception_handling'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2023:in top_level'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2001:inrun'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in standard_exception_handling'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:inrun'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31
/usr/local/bin/rake:19:in load'
/usr/local/bin/rake:19</code>
</pre>

Comments and changes to this ticket

You flagged this item as spam.
Elad Meidar June 18th, 2010 @ 11:07 AM
I don't really think it makes any sense.

Since columns are accessed via getter/setter ruby methods, the Ruby language restriction of not using method names that start with a number is a blocker for this fix.

Not sure if there's a workaround/hack to solve this somehow, but it doesn't make too much sense to name a method that begins with a number either... simply replace the method name digits with explicit description:
```
def two_one?
```
Rohit Arondekar June 18th, 2010 @ 11:08 AM
- State changed from “new” to “wontfix”
You flagged this item as spam.
Christopher Evans June 18th, 2010 @ 07:22 PM
Sorry, I didn't describe the issue in the best terms.

The issue is that the database table has columns that start with numbers.

mysql> describe asset_dynamic_embed;
+-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | id | int(11) unsigned | NO | MUL | 0 | | | 1_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 6_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 7_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 8_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 9_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 10_2 | varchar(48) | NO | | | | | 11_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 12_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 13_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 14_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 15_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 16_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 17_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 18_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 19_2 | varchar(48) | NO | | | | | 20_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | | 21_2 | varchar(32) | NO | | | | +-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 18 rows in set (0.01 sec)
Rohit Arondekar June 19th, 2010 @ 05:25 AM
Christopher, the best solution that I can give you is to migrate that legacy table to something Rails will support. It will be quite difficult to modify Rails to support column names starting with numbers as Elad has explained.
Jeremy Kemper June 19th, 2010 @ 06:56 AM
- State changed from “wontfix” to “open”
The workaround is to not generate Ruby accessors for columns with invalid Ruby names. They're still accessible using read_attribute and []. Seems reasonable.

Christopher, got a patch + tests?
Santiago Pastorino February 2nd, 2011 @ 04:37 PM
- Importance changed from “” to “Low”
This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not been commented on for at least three months.

The resources of the Rails core team are limited, and so we are asking for your help. If you can still reproduce this error on the 3-0-stable branch or on master, please reply with all of the information you have about it and add "[state:open]" to your comment. This will reopen the ticket for review. Likewise, if you feel that this is a very important feature for Rails to include, please reply with your explanation so we can consider it.

Thank you for all your contributions, and we hope you will understand this step to focus our efforts where they are most helpful.
Santiago Pastorino February 2nd, 2011 @ 04:37 PM
- State changed from “open” to “stale”
You flagged this item as spam.
bingbing March 26th, 2011 @ 01:35 AM
omega watch

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rails does not handle columns that start with a number

Comments and changes to this ticket

Elad Meidar June 18th, 2010 @ 11:07 AM

Rohit Arondekar June 18th, 2010 @ 11:08 AM

Christopher Evans June 18th, 2010 @ 07:22 PM

Rohit Arondekar June 19th, 2010 @ 05:25 AM

Jeremy Kemper June 19th, 2010 @ 06:56 AM

Santiago Pastorino February 2nd, 2011 @ 04:37 PM

Santiago Pastorino February 2nd, 2011 @ 04:37 PM

bingbing March 26th, 2011 @ 01:35 AM

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