[ruby-on-rails] find vs find_by vs where

I am new to rails. What I see that there are a lot of ways to find a record:

1. find_by_<columnname>(<columnvalue>)
2. find(:first, :conditions => { <columnname> => <columnvalue> }
3. where(<columnname> => <columnvalue>).first

And it looks like all of them end up generating exactly the same SQL. Also, I believe the same is true for finding multiple records:

1. find_all_by_<columnname>(<columnvalue>)
2. find(:all, :conditions => { <columnname> => <columnvalue> }
3. where(<columnname> => <columnvalue>)

Is there a rule of thumb or recommendation on which one to use?

Apart from accepted answer, following is also valid

Model.find() can accept array of ids, and will return all records which matches. Model.find_by_id(123) also accept array but will only process first id value present in array

Model.find([1,2,3])
Model.find_by_id([1,2,3])

Suppose I have a model User

1. User.find(id)

Returns a row where primary key = id. The return type will be User object.

2. User.find_by(email:"[email protected]")

Returns first row with matching attribute or email in this case. Return type will be User object again.

Note :- User.find_by(email: "[email protected]") is similar to User.find_by_email("[email protected]")

3. User.where(project_id:1)

Returns all users in users table where attribute matches.

Here return type will be ActiveRecord::Relation object. ActiveRecord::Relation class includes Ruby's Enumerable module so you can use it's object like an array and traverse on it.

Model.find

1- Parameter: ID of the object to find.

2- If found: It returns the object (One object only).

3- If not found: raises an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound exception.

Model.find_by

1- Parameter: key/value

Example:

User.find_by name: 'John', email: '[email protected]'

2- If found: It returns the object.

3- If not found: returns nil.

Note: If you want it to raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound use find_by!

Model.where

1- Parameter: same as find_by

2- If found: It returns ActiveRecord::Relation containing one or more records matching the parameters.

3- If not found: It return an Empty ActiveRecord::Relation.

where returns ActiveRecord::Relation

Now take a look at find_by implementation:

def find_by
  where(*args).take
end

As you can see find_by is the same as where but it returns only one record. This method should be used for getting 1 record and where should be used for getting all records with some conditions.

There is a difference between find and find_by in that find will return an error if not found, whereas find_by will return null.

Sometimes it is easier to read if you have a method like find_by email: "haha", as opposed to .where(email: some_params).first.

Both #2s in your lists are being deprecated. You can still use find(params[:id]) though.

Generally, where() works in most situations.

Here's a great post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150206131559/http://m.onkey.org/active-record-query-interface

The accepted answer generally covers it all, but I'd like to add something, just incase you are planning to work with the model in a way like updating, and you are retrieving a single record(whose id you do not know), Then find_by is the way to go, because it retrieves the record and does not put it in an array

irb(main):037:0> @kit = Kit.find_by(number: "3456")
  Kit Load (0.9ms)  SELECT "kits".* FROM "kits" WHERE "kits"."number" = 
 '3456' LIMIT 1
=> #<Kit id: 1, number: "3456", created_at: "2015-05-12 06:10:56",   
updated_at: "2015-05-12 06:10:56", job_id: nil>

irb(main):038:0> @kit.update(job_id: 2)
(0.2ms)  BEGIN Kit Exists (0.4ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM "kits" WHERE  
("kits"."number" = '3456' AND "kits"."id" != 1) LIMIT 1 SQL (0.5ms)   
UPDATE "kits" SET "job_id" = $1, "updated_at" = $2 WHERE  "kits"."id" = 
1  [["job_id", 2], ["updated_at", Tue, 12 May 2015 07:16:58 UTC +00:00]] 
(0.6ms)  COMMIT => true

but if you use where then you can not update it directly

irb(main):039:0> @kit = Kit.where(number: "3456")
Kit Load (1.2ms)  SELECT "kits".* FROM "kits" WHERE "kits"."number" =  
'3456' => #<ActiveRecord::Relation [#<Kit id: 1, number: "3456", 
created_at: "2015-05-12 06:10:56", updated_at: "2015-05-12 07:16:58", 
job_id: 2>]>

irb(main):040:0> @kit.update(job_id: 3)
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)

in such a case you would have to specify it like this

irb(main):043:0> @kit[0].update(job_id: 3)
(0.2ms)  BEGIN Kit Exists (0.6ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM "kits" WHERE 
("kits"."number" = '3456' AND "kits"."id" != 1) LIMIT 1 SQL (0.6ms)   
UPDATE "kits" SET "job_id" = $1, "updated_at" = $2 WHERE "kits"."id" = 1  
[["job_id", 3], ["updated_at", Tue, 12 May 2015 07:28:04 UTC +00:00]]
(0.5ms)  COMMIT => true

The answers given so far are all OK.

However, one interesting difference is that Model.find searches by id; if found, it returns a Model object (just a single record) but throws an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound otherwise.

Model.find_by is very similar to Model.find and lets you search any column or group of columns in your database but it returns nil if no record matches the search.

Model.where on the other hand returns a Model::ActiveRecord_Relation object which is just like an array containing all the records that match the search. If no record was found, it returns an empty Model::ActiveRecord_Relation object.

I hope these would help you in deciding which to use at any point in time.

I will personally recommend using

where(< columnname> => < columnvalue>)

Since Rails 4 you can do:

User.find_by(name: 'Bob')

which is the equivalent find_by_name in Rails 3.

Use #where when #find and #find_by are not enough.

The best part of working with any open source technology is that you can inspect length and breadth of it. Checkout this link

find_by ~> Finds the first record matching the specified conditions. There is no implied ordering so if order matters, you should specify it yourself. If no record is found, returns nil.

find ~> Finds the first record matching the specified conditions , but if no record is found, it raises an exception but that is done deliberately.

Do checkout the above link, it has all the explanation and use cases for the following two functions.