Question

I currently have a model Attend that will have a status column, and this status column will only have a few values for it. STATUS_OPTIONS = {:yes, :no, :maybe}

1) I am not sure how i can validate this before a user inserts an Attend? Basically an enum in java but how could i do this in rails?

Answer 1

Create a globally accessible array of the options you want, then validate the value of your status column:

class Attend < ActiveRecord::Base

  STATUS_OPTIONS = %w(yes no maybe)

  validates :status, :inclusion => {:in => STATUS_OPTIONS}

end

You could then access the possible statuses via Attend::STATUS_OPTIONS