Checking if ActiveRecord find returns a result

Question

I\'m trying to check if a find method returns a result. My find method is the following:

post = Post.find(:all, :conditions => { :url => params[\'url\'] },         


        

Answer 1

Use the BANG! version of the find_by_url method to get it to raise an exception of it could not be found and then rescue it later on in that same method/action.

def show
  Post.find_by_url!(params[:url])
  rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
    flash[:notice] = "The URL you were looking for could not be found."
    redirect_to root_path
  end
end

If you didn't raise an exception here I believe that Rails would show the public/404.html page.