Martyn Elmy-liddiard wrote: > Another newbie question I fear but help as always appreciated. > > I have a tools table and a controls table and for each 'tool' I allow > user to specify upto 3 controls. > > So the Tools table is :- > id > desc > control_id1 > control_id2 > control_id3 > > and the Controls table is: > id > controldesc > > I have linked the tables in their models with > Tools > belongs_to :control > > and Control > has_many :tools > > When I display the Tools rows I want to display the 'desc' column from > the Controls table for each of the control_id1, control_id2 and > control_id3. > > Is this possible or is a relationship link only available on a single > column in the Tools table that must be called 'control_id' ?
It is possible -- check out the options on belongs_to and has_many -- but it's inadvisable. In general, it is *very* bad practice to have a database design that has repeating fields such as your coltrol_id[1-3] -- it will create all sorts of problems down the road. I think you should be using a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship between controls and tools. > > Hope this makes sense. > > Thanks Best, -- Marnen Laibow-Koser http://www.marnen.org [email protected] -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
