“Touch” updated_at column in Rails 2.3.2

Question

I have a process which iterates through a bunch of ActiveRecord models, does some processing, and saves the models again. Often though, the processing doesn\'t result in an

Answer 1

Actually the touch method is already in Rails 2.3.x, so you can simply do:

model.touch

To update the updated_at column. Alternatively, to update some other column with the current date and time use:

model.touch(:column_name)

Answer 2

Now that the 2.3.x line has come and gone, a more definitive answer is that touch didn't make it into ActiveRecord until 2.3.8. So, anyone using still using Rails 2.3.2 (as the OP was -- and as I currently am) will need to find another way to "touch" their records.