add a database column with Rails migration and populate it based on another column

Question

I'm writing a migration to add a column to a table. The value of the column is dependent on the value of two more existing columns. What is the best/fastest way to do this? Currently I have this but not sure if it's the best way since the groups table is can be very large.

class AddColorToGroup < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    add_column :groups, :color, :string
    Groups = Group.all.each do |g|
      c = "red" if g.is_active && is_live 
      c = "green" if g.is_active
      c = "orange"
      g.update_attribute(:type, c)
    end
  end

  def self.down

  end
end

Answer 1

I would highly suggest doing three total queries instead. Always leverage the database vs. looping over a bunch of items in an array. I would think something like this could work.

For the purposes of writing this, I'll assume is_active checks a field active where 1 is active. I'll assume live is the same as well.

Rails 3 approach

class AddColorToGroup < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    add_column :groups, :color, :string
    Group.where(active: 1, live: 1).update_all(type: "red")
    Group.where(active: 1, live: 0).update_all(type: "green")
    Group.where(active: 0, live: 0).update_all(type: "orange")
   end
 end

Feel free to review the documentation of update_all here.

Rails 2.x approach

class AddColorToGroup < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    add_column :groups, :color, :string
    Group.update_all("type = red", "active = 1 AND live = 1")
    Group.update_all("type = red", "active = 1 AND live = 0")
    Group.update_all("type = red", "active = 0 AND live = 0")
   end
 end

Rails 2 documentation