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

You want to use the magic method find_or_create_by

def check_exists
    tag = Tag.find_or_create_by_name_and_user_id(:name => self.name, :user_id => current_user.id)
end

Check out the ActiveRecord::Base docs for more info