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30

answers:

1
Q: 

How do I seed data into new columns in an existing Rails model?

I have a rails model called County that has 5 columns of data for different population attributes for that county. There is a record in the counties table for each county in the US. I now need to add additional county level data to meet a new need. The counties table will get an additional 10 or so rows for numeric population data (breakdown by race and ethnicity). I currently have the data in a .csv file, ready to go.

How do I seed the new data into the existing model such that I fill in the county specific information for each county in the database? Can this be done with rake db:seed?

+1  A: 

To start with, you can use FasterCSV to parse your input file. From there if you have a specific question please ask.

jdl  2010-07-25 01:01:35
I would like to know how to handle this type of task most effectively. Should I just write a method in the model that I call to parse and loop through the .csv file and save each value into the proper field? Or is this something that can/should be handled through the `rake db:seed` task? I've done large seedings before using the rake task, but those were all with new models.
Clay  2010-07-25 02:22:32
I would do it with a rake task, but not db:seed. Just a one-off custom task that loads in the new data. This is a one-time thing, right? It seemed that way from your question.
jdl  2010-07-25 03:51:41
Yes, it is. Ok. Thanks... that's what I was looking for.
Clay  2010-07-25 17:01:30

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