Question

I had to implement these methods on an ActiveRecord model in order to support some desired view functionality.

I’m thinking there has to be a more compact way to declare these methods, probably involving an Array of symbols and an Array#each call.

Any suggestions?

(These are legacy column names, BTW.)

---

class Contract < ActiveRecord::Base

  def start_date_displayed
    self.start_date.present? ? self.start_date.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def start_date_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.start_date = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  def end_date_displayed
    self.end_date.present? ? self.end_date.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def end_date_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.end_date = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  def ArrivalDate_displayed
    self.ArrivalDate.present? ? self.ArrivalDate.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def ArrivalDate_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.ArrivalDate = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  def Contract_ReceivedDate_displayed
    self.Contract_ReceivedDate.present? ? self.Contract_ReceivedDate.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def Contract_ReceivedDate_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.Contract_ReceivedDate = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  def Contract_FinalizedDate_displayed
    self.Contract_FinalizedDate.present? ? self.Contract_FinalizedDate.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def Contract_FinalizedDate_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.Contract_FinalizedDate = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  def Committee_Date_displayed
    self.Committee_Date.present? ? self.Committee_Date.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
  end

  def Committee_Date_displayed=(input)
    if input.present?
      self.Committee_Date = Date.strptime input, '%m/%d/%Y'
    end
  end

  # ...

end

Answer 1

class Contract < ActiveRecord::Base

  %w(start_date end_date).each do |attr_name|
     class_eval <<-METHOD_DEF
         def #{attr_name}_displayed
             self.#{attr_name}.present? ? self.#{attr_name}.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
         end

         def #{attr_name)_displayed=(input)
            if input.present?
              self.#{attr_name} = Date.strptime #{attr_name}, '%m/%d/%Y'
            end
         end


     METHOD_DEF
  end
end

If only define these methods for those columns that name ends with date, then

class Contract < ActiveRecord::Base

   self.column_names.grep(/date$/i).each do |column_name|

     class_eval <<-METHOD_DEF
         def #{column_name}_displayed
             self.#{column_name}.present? ? self.#{column_name}.strftime("%-m/%-d/%Y") : ''
         end

         def #{column_name)_displayed=(input)
            if input.present?
              self.#{column_name} = Date.strptime #{column_name}, '%m/%d/%Y'
            end
         end             
     METHOD_DEF

  end
end