Rails provides expressive, concise tools for working with collections. Two often-overlooked but potent methods are index_by and index_with.

When working with date ranges or numeric intervals, the range operator .. (inclusive) is a powerful and clean tool. In this post, we’ll break down how it works and how to use it effectively in your database queries — along with a comparison to the more verbose alternative.

In Ruby on Rails, controller actions usually return responses using render. However, in many cases—especially in APIs—you only need to return an HTTP status code without a response body. That’s exactly what head is for.

The method find_sole_by is particularly useful when you need to retrieve a single record based on a condition but want to ensure that only one matching record exists. If more than one record is found, it raises an exception, helping you catch potential data issues early.

When working with data in Ruby, especially when processing user input or reading from external sources, it’s common to come across strings that contain invalid or corrupted characters. This can happen due to encoding issues or poorly formatted input. Thankfully, Ruby offers a built-in method called String#scrub to handle these cases cleanly and efficiently.

When working with large datasets in Rails, loading all records into memory can be expensive and inefficient. That’s where Active Record’s batch processing methods — find_each and find_in_batches — come to the rescue. They allow you to iterate over large numbers of records without blowing up your memory usage.

When working with Rails migrations, performance isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind—until your schema starts getting big or you’re deploying changes to production environments with large databases. Fortunately, Rails provides a simple way to optimize schema changes: the bulk: true option.

When working on a new feature that’s not quite ready for production, it’s helpful to hide it without introducing a bunch of complexity or new dependencies.

Ruby provides many powerful methods for string manipulation, and among them, delete_suffix and delete_prefix are particularly useful when dealing with structured text. These methods allow you to remove a specified suffix or prefix from a string if it exists, providing a clean and efficient way to handle text processing.

When comparing Make and Zapier, both are powerful automation tools that connect various apps and automate workflows, but they cater to different needs and preferences, especially in terms of complexity, flexibility, and pricing.

When creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), choosing between a low-code platform and a custom solution built on something like Ruby on Rails can be challenging. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages that can significantly impact the project depending on the product’s needs and future potential. Below, we explore the key points of each approach based on a comparative analysis.

When it comes to choosing the best low-code or no-code tool for building your MVP (Minimum Viable Product), the decision really depends on your specific use case. The best approach is to map out the features you need and determine the “screens” your app is likely to have.

In Ruby on Rails, ActiveRecord simplifies working with databases, and where.not is a common way to filter out records based on a condition. However, in some cases, using excluding — introduced in Rails 7 — can be a better alternative. Here’s why.

Ruby is known for its flexibility and simplicity, allowing developers to work with different programming paradigms, such as procedural, object-oriented, and functional. Each of these styles has its strengths and can be applied in Ruby on Rails projects to solve specific problems elegantly. In this post, we’ll explore each paradigm with practical examples.

In the world of software engineering, building maintainable, scalable, and robust applications is a priority. Ruby on Rails, a popular framework, emphasizes conventions that simplify development, but this convenience can sometimes lead to tightly coupled code. Decoupling, the practice of reducing dependencies between different parts of your code, plays a vital role in improving orthogonality—a system’s ability to make changes in one part without impacting others. This blog post explores why decoupling is essential for achieving orthogonality in Ruby on Rails applications and how it benefits your codebase.

When writing Ruby code, one of the most common tasks is to handle potential nil values safely. Ruby provides a few ways to do this, and two approaches often come up: using the safe navigation operator(&.) and placing an explicit nil check first. In this post, we’ll compare both techniques and help you understand which one is best suited for your code.

Ever inherited a project with a database full of messy, inconsistent data? Maybe you’ve dealt with users submitting forms filled with errors or blank fields? That’s where active record validations come to the rescue, and trust me—they’re a must-have in every developer’s toolkit.

When adding a boolean column to a table in a Rails application, one common question is whether to set a default value for it. Let’s explore why this choice matters, the best practices around it, and how it impacts data handling. Using a real-world example, we’ll take a look at a migration adding a women_only column to a trips table.

Rails 8 has introduced many exciting features to streamline the development process, and one of the most significant is the default inclusion of Kamal 2. But what exactly is Kamal, and how does it simplify deployments? In this post, we’ll delve into this powerful deployment tool and explore its integration with Rails 8.

Rails provides several methods to update records, but one that stands out for its simplicity and efficiency is update_attribute.

Ruby on Rails 8 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting versions yet, introducing powerful features for both seasoned developers and those new to the framework. From supporting SQLite for production to native authentication and improved Progressive Web App (PWA) support, Rails 8 brings significant innovations to the table. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most impactful changes:

Ruby is known for its flexibility and powerful metaprogramming capabilities. One such method that often comes up in Ruby development, particularly in Ruby on Rails applications, is instance_exec. It allows developers to execute a block of code within the context of an object’s instance, making it extremely useful for dynamically executing code within objects without exposing unnecessary details or methods.

Turbo Streams provide a real-time, server-driven way to update Rails applications without complex JavaScript. One of the latest enhancements to Turbo Streams is the ability to use the method: :morph option in various actions, allowing more efficient DOM updates. This option can be used with actions like update, replace, and others, providing more control over how updates are applied.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the most useful core extensions in Rails that enhance how developers work with modules: delegate, concern, and the deprecated but still important alias_method_chain. These tools simplify method delegation, modularize code, and modify method behavior. While alias_method_chain is no longer in use, understanding its history is helpful for maintaining legacy code. We’ll break down how each of these methods works and why they’re valuable, especially when writing cleaner, more efficient Rails applications.

In the latest version of Ruby on Rails (Rails 8), developers have been given a handy new shortcut for adding a NOT NULL constraint to database columns. This small but powerful enhancement simplifies the process of generating migrations, making them cleaner and more intuitive.