Shouldn't Rails find_by_ methods return an empty array instead of nil?

Question

It's normal for there to be no records that match the find_by_ condition, but returning nil doesn't make sense. Because then in my views errors are raised by sensible code like:

<% for thing in @thing_that_might_be_an_array_or_might_be_nil do %>

Since find_by_ always returns an array, even if there's only 1 record, it should also return an array if there are 0 records. Then all those

<% @thing.each

and

<% for thing in @thing

in our views will quietly get passed over instead of causing a "We're sorry, but something went wrong." (or what am I missing? what's the current best practice of dealing with this?)

And in Rails 4, all this is moot. – Arcolye May 22 '13 at 16:36 — Arcolye, May 22 '13 at 16:36

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '11 at 05:01

find_by_ is used to find one record, the first one that matches your conditions.

find_all_by_ is used to find a set of records, an array, that match your conditions.

So, yes, I think it's totally normal for find_by_ to return nil, and not an empty array, when it doesn't find anything, because you're only asking for one thing.

Shouldn't Rails find_by_ methods return an empty array instead of nil?

1 Answers1