How to check if a record exists before creating a new one in rails3?

Question

Heres what I\'m trying to accomplish:

• I have a tagging system in place.
• Tags are created, when Posts are created (posts has_many :tags, :through => :tag

Answer 1

try this

  def check_exists
    tag = Tag.where(:name => self.name, :user_id => current_user.id).first
    tag = Tag.new({:name => self.name, :user_id => current_user.id}) unless tag
  end

use Tag.new instead of Tag.create