What's the difference between belongs_to and has_one?

Question

What is the difference between a belongs_to and a has_one?

Reading the Ruby on Rails guide hasn\'t helped me.

Answer 1

It's about where the foreign key sits.

class Foo < AR:Base
end

• If foo belongs_to :bar, then the foos table has a bar_id column
• If foo has_one :bar, then the bars table has a foo_id column

On the conceptual level, if your class A has a has_one relationship with class B then class A is the parent of class B hence your class B will have a belongs_to relationship with class A since it is the child of class A.

Both express a 1-1 relationship. The difference is mostly where to place the foreign key, which goes on the table for the class declaring the belongs_to relationship.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  # I reference an account.
  belongs_to :account
end

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  # One user references me.
  has_one :user
end

The tables for these classes could look something like:

CREATE TABLE users (
  id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  account_id int(11) default NULL,
  name varchar default NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (id)
)

CREATE TABLE accounts (
  id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  name varchar default NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (id)
)