Question

Im trying to make a news feed for a site and Im adding two arrays of different classes together to create a @feed_items array. But clearly I need to be able to order the new array by created_by

right now I have:

  def home
        @comments = Comment.all
        @images = Image.all
        @feed_items = @comments+@images
  end

So right now when I loop the @feed_items in my view, the loop displays all the comments (ordered by created_at), and then it display the images(ordered by created_at). But I need to order the entire array so everything is mixed up and ordered correctly.

I tried to do this:

  def home
        @comments = Comment.all
        @images = Image.all
        @feed_items = (@comments+@images).order('created_by DESC')
  end

But I get an undefined method error for the @feed_items array. Same thing with tying to use limit or paginate.

Answer 1

If you can’t do it in SQL, which is the case when you’re dealing with two different tables in a single query, you can do it with Ruby:

def home
 @comments = Comment.all
 @images = Image.all

 @feed_items = (@comments + @images).sort_by(&:created_at)
end

Remember that using the all method can be dangerous because you may have, potentially, tens of thousands of records. It’s always a good idea to use a pagination system like will_paginate if nothing else.