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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-15T18:37:13+00:00

This is probably a newbie question, but I cannot figure out the best solution.

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This is probably a newbie question, but I cannot figure out the best solution.
I have a Color model and a Cover model.
Most of the time, a cover has_one :color. Maybe one out of one hundred cases, the cover has_many :colors.
Do I have to implement a has_many :through association between the two models? It seems redundant. What’s the best practice to define such a relationship?

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  1. Editorial Team

    I think you should cover the general case, when Cover has_many :colors. So this is a many-to-many relationship. In this case, you will have 2 options:

    1. Use join table, if you just need to store cover_id and color_id in the join table, so you will use has_and_belongs_to_many to define your association. With this option, You will have to create join table.

    2. Use join model, if you need to store not only cover_id and color_id, but also other attributes, and you need to do some calculation, so you have to use has_many :through to define your association. With this option, You will have to create new model.

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