Best way to export a database table to a YAML file?

Question

I have some data in my development database that I would like to utilize as fixtures in my test environment. What is the best way in Rails 2.x to export a database table to

Answer 1

I used this in Rails 6:

# How to run:
# rake fixtures:import_db_table[my_table]
namespace :fixtures do
  desc 'Convert development table into Rails test fixtures'
  task :import_db_table, [:table_name] => :environment do |_task, args|
    begin
      table_name = args[:table_name]
      raise "Missing table name" if table_name.blank?
      conter = '000'
      file_path = "#{Rails.root}/spec/fixtures/#{table_name}.yml"
      ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection
      File.open(file_path, 'w') do |file|
        rows = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.select_all("SELECT * FROM #{table_name}")
        data = rows.each_with_object({}) do |record, hash|
          suffix = record['id'].blank? ? conter.succ! : record['id']
          hash["#{table_name.singularize}_#{suffix}"] = record
        end
        puts "Writing table '#{table_name}' to '#{file_path}'"
        file.write(data.to_yaml)
      end
    ensure
      ActiveRecord::Base.connection.close if ActiveRecord::Base.connection
    end
  end
end

Extracted from here (which imports all tables).