Method works in console but not in the controller ??

Question

SORRY:: I forgot that params[:user_id] does not exist in the controller, using current_user.id !

I wrote a method that returns an array of place values for user bids, e.g., [2, 8, 10]. In the Rails console it works fine, but the instance variable from the controller returns nil to the browser. What's going on?

This method returns an array such as [1, 2, 3] from the console

  def bid_places(bid_user_id, auction_id)

    unique_bids = Bid.find_all_by_auction_id(auction_id).uniq
    unique_bids.sort! {|a, b| b.point <=> a.point }

    a, n, places = 0, 0, []
    until a == 3 || n == unique_bids.count
      place = n + 1
      user = unique_bids.values_at(n).first.user_id
      if user == bid_user_id
        places[a] = place
        a += 1
      end
      n += 1
    end
    places
  end

in the controller, this returns [] (using debugger)

@user_places = @bid.bid_places(params[:user_id], params[:auction_id])
=> []

Answer 1

be careful, you are probably seeing script/console's interactiveness tell you more than what is actually going on in your method.

Question, does your method actually return something? try explicitly defining a return and see if it works for you?

script/console (and irb) often times do STDOUT evaluations that return you things that aren't actually being returned to offer more debugging help.