get attribute of ActiveRecord object by string

Question

It is probably a really simple thing but can't find a solution.

I have an ActiveRecord object and want to get an attribute like this:

attribute_name = "name" user = User.find(1) user.get_attribute_by_name(attribute_name) => "John" 

Thanks!

Answer 1

All of these should work:

user[attribute_name] user.read_attribute(attribute_name) user.send(attribute_name) 

Personally I wouldn't use send in this case. When available, prefer public_send to send