Question

Say I have:

class X < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :z, :dependent => :destroy
end

class Y < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :z, :dependent => :destroy
end

class Z < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :x
  belongs_to :y
end

… and then I:

x.destroy

Does z get destroyed if it also belongs to y?

I know it’s pretty simple to test and I’ll do so and answer my own question if I don’t get any responses, but in addition to the correct answer I’m also interested in better knowing how :dependent => :destroy works and if there are any other implications I need to be aware of. The ActiveRecord::Base documentation is pretty sparse on this topic.

Answer 1

It will for sure destroy all z objects connected, and that will make a lot of business errors on your database.

IMHO I would refactor this modeling. Work with this kind of relationship could go terribly bad. Is there a reason you can’t remodel?

Maybe if just change the validation could work, or even make X and Y inherit some ohter class that makes the relationhip with the X class.