Rails 3, Active Record query returns ActiveRecord::Relation object, instead of objects

Question

I feel like this is a simple problem I'm having due to my misunderstanding of the new ActiveRecord query interface, but take this example:

>> Category.first.recipes => [ ... ] # array of recipes 

However:

>> Category.where(:id => 1).recipes => NoMethodError: undefined method `recipes' for #<ActiveRecord::Relation:0x000001033dc9e0> 

What's going on here? why does my where method return an ActiveRecord::Relation object? how can I retrieve the objects from the query here?

Answer 1

This is actually intentional.

Category.where(:id => 1) # Is Equivalent to Category.all(:conditions => {:id => 1}}) Category.where(:id => 1).first # Is equivalent of Category.first(:conditions => {:id => 1}}) 

The objects are only retrieved when special methods like first, each etc are called. This is called lazy loading which is a great when you want to cache your views. Read more about why here.

Answer 2

Category.where(:id => 1).recipes 

Returns an array. If you simply do Category.where(:id => 1).first.recipes it should work.