One tool I use to generate lots of similar-looking statements is Excel or any other spreadsheet program. See the attached XLS file. Just cut and past the columns that repeat, and separate out the User.create data into a separate column. Then copy and paste the worksheet into a text editor and remove all of the \t characters that usually gets pasted in.
The more elegant way would be to create a collection of the values that change, iterate through them (like :name) and call User.create. The nice thing about the spreadsheet is that you can easily make changes en masse to your scripts and re-use them as needed. As a person with lots of DBA experience creating SQL scripts like this has come in handy many times. I don't see why you couldn't use the same approach with migrations code either. On 1/15/07, Kevin Burk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This may be another basic question, but I can't find a coherent
answer anywhere in either Rails or SQL books.
I need to load a chunk of data into my SQL database. I'd like to do
this using a data migration in Rails.
Until now, I've created the migration, and edited the migration file
with the full code:
User.create(:name => 'Kevin Burk',
:city => 'San Diego')
User.create(:name => 'Someone Else',
:city => 'San Diego')
and so forth. This is rather tedious, especially when I have a great
deal of data I want to incorporate. However, it does allow me to add
and drop all of the development data as needed, which is what I want.
In AWR2, in the migrations chapter, they talk about loading data from
fixtures, using a YAML file. The form and syntax of the YAML file is
never discussed, and I can't get a straight answer from the author
telling me how to structure the YAML file. He's talking about row
labels, which I don't understand-and they don't seem to relate to the
"id" field for the row that is automatically generated when I run the
User.create() function in the migration file.
I have no SQL experience, and no desire to go under the hood with
SQL. However, there must be a way that I can create an external data
file (as YAML, text, or whatever) that involves less typing, easier
syntax, and keeps my data_migration.rb files reasonably small.
Using the User.create() approach in the rails migration is already a
vast improvement over the raw SQL INSERT code. I'd just like to know
if there's an easier way-and if there is, to have it described in
great detail because I lack the programming background to make some
very fundamental connections about how certain things are done.
Thanks for your help!
Kevin Burk
--
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generating-data-quickly.xls
Description: MS-Excel spreadsheet
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