Finding object in array based on attribute

Question

My app has the following models: user and watch_list. User has attributes id, name and WatchList has attributes user_id, friend_id.

class WatchList < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  has_many :friends, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => "friend_id"
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :watch_list
  has_many :friends, :through => :watch_list

  def friends_with(friend_id)
    self.friends.each do |f|
      if f.id == friend_id
        return true
      end
    end
    return false
  end
end

For some reason when I use @current_user.friends_with(friend_id) I always get 'true' as a response. Any ideas why this won't work right? (I know @current_user works)

Thanks!

Answer 1

What are you trying to do with this method? Determining if a user is a friend with another (through watchlist)? By convention, in ruby, a method returning either true or false is ended by an interrogation mark…

You may use the include? Array method directly and do

@current_user.friends.include?(friend)

In this case, you use the friend object directly and not its id…

Or write a methode like the following:

I would try something like:

def has_a_friend_with_id?(friend_id)
  friends.map(&:id)include? friend_id
end

I renamed your method in order to have something more meaningful…

Answer 2

In the User model, try commenting out "has_one :watch_list", maybe this is preventing it from seeing more that one friend.