Keith Schacht's Weblog: Today I Learned

with_defaults is a better named alias

2025-04-28T15:36:38+00:00

`with_defaults` is the same as `reverse_merge` in rails but much better named.

Bundler can be configured to auto install

2025-04-28T15:35:23+00:00

No more pulling down changes to a project and realizing I need to run `bundle install`. Run this command once on a dev machine and it'll auto install whenever new gems are needed: `bundle config --global auto_install true`.

Tags: Ruby

React in Rails is gaining momentum with Inertia

2025-04-14T23:44:45+00:00

I am seeing more activity around an elegant way to utilize React in Rails. I plan to try this out soon and these articles are a good starting point. There is even a shadcn starter project which is part of my motivation.

Tags: Rails

Ruby's clamp method reduces conditionals

2025-02-24T15:19:46+00:00

You can constrain a variable to be within a range using clamp:

5.clamp(1, 10)  # => 5
-3.clamp(1, 10) # => 1
15.clamp(1, 10) # => 10

Tags: Ruby

Regex within string square brackets

2025-02-24T15:16:30+00:00

I've always known that Ruby supports ranges within a string's square brackets. So in addition to the simple `name[4]` I can do `name[2..4]` and `name[2...]` and `name[-1]`. But I just learned you can put regex in the square brackets for more dynamic substring selectors: `"me+abc123@email.com"[/.+\+(.+)@(.+)/, 2]` will give you the subdomain of the email address. It even works with named capture groups! `"123.45"[/(?<dollars>\d+)\.(?<centers>\d+)/, :dollars]` will give you the dollars. The article has a few other notable examples.

via

Tags: Ruby

Elegant solution to versioning an API

2025-02-24T15:13:14+00:00

The couple times I've done API versioning it was with /v1/ or v1.domain.com. Both of these are the generally recommended pattern within rails. This article outlines a querystring based approach to API versioning and a much more flexible implementation strategy that avoids a lot of duplication and code maintenance.

via

Tags: Rails

pick is the single-value version of pluck in Rails

2024-11-26T23:24:00+00:00

Instead of doing

Messages.pluck(:user_id).first

you can do

Messages.pick(:user_id)

Tags: Rails

Rails ActiveRecord has a .sole method

2024-11-26T23:15:43+00:00

I just learned about `sole` and `find_sole_by`. They ensure that only a single record is returned and will raise if there is something other than one. It's the equivalent of:

api_keys = user.api_keys.where(key: key)

if api_keys.length == 1
  api_key = api_keys.first
elsif api_keys.length == 0
  raise "No records found!"
else
  raise "More than one matching record found!"
end

Tags: Rails

NASA's Dragonfly probe to Saturn's Titan in 2028

2024-11-26T14:58:00+00:00

In 2028 NASA is launching a spacecraft to Saturn's moon Titan to study its habitability in a mission named Dragonfly. It will land in 2034. They're sending a drone powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator so they can visit a variety of sites. Titan is notable because it's believed to have a similar chemistry to ancient earth. Past probes have measured the contents of the atmosphere and confirmed it contains a mix of hydrocarbons. The surface contains a lot of water ice and scientists believe there is a water ocean in the interior of the moon.

Tags: space

Rails migrations can include an up_only part

2024-10-29T20:29:09+00:00

When writing a migration in Rails and you need to do one thing which can't be automatically reversed, I always convert a def change to up and down. It turns out you can slip in an up_only block:

class AddFieldsToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.1]
  def change
    add_column :users, :first_name, :string
    add_column :users, :last_name, :string

    up_only do
      User.delete_all
    end
  end
end

from RubyCademy

Tags: Rails

Ruby can chain methods and right-assign

2024-10-29T20:23:35+00:00

I just learned that ruby supports re-writing this:

total = plus_shipping(with_taxes(subtotal(items)))

As:

subtotal(items).then { |subtotal| with_taxes(subtotal) }.then { |total| plus_shipping(total) } => total

from davetron

Tags: Ruby