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

The question I originally asked got pretty distorted by the end. So I'm separating it.

People who are trying to do what I originally asked can try this:

 before_create :check_tag_exists

 private

 def check_tag_exists
     @tag = Tag.find_by_name_and_user_id(self.name, self.user_id)
     if @tag != nil
       #
     end
  end

This will enable you to check if your record has already been created. Any further logic you can drop in that if statment.