Array Attribute for Ruby Model

Question

Is it possible to create an attribute for a class that is an array? I tried reading this but I didn\'t get much out of it. I want to do something like this:

clas         


        

Answer 1

Migration:

t.text :thearray, :default => [].to_yaml

In the model use serialize:

class MyModel
  serialize :thearray, Array
  ...
end

As Marnen says in his answer, it would be good to know what kind of info you want to store in that array, a serialized attribute may not be the best option.

[Marten Veldthuis' warning] Be careful about changing the serialized array. If you change it directly like this:

my_model.thearray = [1,2,3]

That works fine, but if you do this:

my_model.thearray << 4

Then ActiveRecord won't detect that the value of thearray has changed. To tell AR about that change, you need to do this:

my_model.thearray_will_change!
my_model.thearray << 4