Question

The code smells and i’m sure i’m missing a helper to do a simple
update or create query like the below snippet :

  @user_answer = current_user.user_answers.find_by_question_id(params[:a_question])
  if @user_answer.nil?
    @user_answer = current_user.user_answers.build({ :answer_id => params[:an_answer] , :question_id => params[:a_question] })      
    @user_answer.save  
  else
    @user_answer.update_attributes(:answer_id => params[:an_answer])
    @user_answer.save 
  end

Answer 1

You might be looking for the find_or_initialize_by method. For example:

@user_answer = current_user.user_answers.find_or_initialize_by_question_id(params[:a_question])
@user_answer.answer_id = params[:an_answer]
@user_answer.save