Question

I’m trying to build a miniature engine that will allow a search query to be built up on the fly by user input. I get the column name and the search string in the params, let’s assume:

params = {:filter_column => "column_name", :filter_string => "search term"}

I know that if I were just calling a standard sort of where on my model it would be along the lines of:

ModelName.where("column_name LIKE ?", params[:filter_string])

The problem I have is I’m trying to compile a list of my filters and then apply them one at a time to the search. Can I build up the where string before I call the where method?

I’ve tried:

ModelName.where("? LIKE ? ", column_name, search_term)

without much luck. Any hints, tips or pointers?

thanks!

Answer 1

You might want to try a solution that uses the Metawhere Gem

i’m thinking something like:

Model.where(params[:filter_column].intern.matches => params[:filter_string])

and you can build each one sequentially in it’s own condition separated by commas or subsequent calls to where.