ActiveRecord find starts with

Question

Really simple question - how do I do a search to find all records where the name starts with a certain string in ActiveRecord. I\'ve seen all sorts of bits all over the internet

Answer 1

Very much like the above answer, but if you're using ActiveRecord...2.1 or greater, you could use a named scope which would allow you to use this "finder" on records retrieved thru associations:

class User
  named_scope :with_name_like, lambda {|str|
    :conditions => ['lower(name) like ?', %(%#{str.downcase}%)]
  }
end

Used like:

User.with_name_like("Samson")

(returns all users in your database with a name like "Samson".

Or:

some_association.users.with_name_like("Samson")

Users off that association only with a name like "Samson".