Question

I am accessing a database table with the .where() method. This should return many rows. How can I view the first row, or the second row. I know I can use the .each method to traverse all rows but what if I just want to access a certain row. I am new to rails, so sorry for this simple question.

Answer 1

To get the first row, you can just use .first

Model.where(:state => "active").first

.last works the same way:

Model.where(:state => "active").last

To get the nth row, use [] with a 0-based index, as with any other array

Model.where(:state => "active")[1] #second result