I believe what you are looking for is assign_attributes
.
It's basically the same as update_attributes but it doesn't save the record:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name
attr_accessible :name, :is_admin, :as => :admin
end
user = User.new
user.assign_attributes({ :name => 'Josh', :is_admin => true }) # Raises an ActiveModel::MassAssignmentSecurity::Error
user.assign_attributes({ :name => 'Bob'})
user.name # => "Bob"
user.is_admin? # => false
user.new_record? # => true