Examples

For information about requiring activerecord-import in your project please see Requiring.

Import Using Columns and Arrays

The #import method can take an array of column names (string or symbols) and an array of arrays. Each child array represents an individual record and its list of values in the same order as the columns. This is the fastest import mechanism and also the most primitive.

columns = [ :title, :author ]
values = [ ['Book1', 'FooManChu'], ['Book2', 'Bob Jones'] ]

# Importing without model validations
Book.import columns, values, :validate => false

# Import with model validations
Book.import columns, values, :validate => true

# when not specified :validate defaults to true
Book.import columns, values

Import Using ActiveRecord Models

The #import method can take an array of models. The attributes will be pulled off from each model by looking at the columns available on the model.

books = [ 
  Book.new(:title => "Book 1", :author => "FooManChu"),
  Book.new(:title => "Book 2", :author => "Bob Jones")
]

# without validations
Book.import books, :validate => false

# with validations
Book.import books, :validate => true

# when not specified :validate defaults to true
Book.import books

Import Using ActiveRecord Models and Explicit Column Names

The #import method can take an array of column names and an array of models. The column names are used to determine what fields of data should be imported. The following example will only import books with the :title field:

books = [ 
  Book.new(:title => "Book 1", :author => "FooManChu"),
  Book.new(:title => "Book 2", :author => "Bob Jones")
]
columns = [ :title ]

# without validations
Book.import columns, books, :validate => false

# with validations
Book.import columns, books, :validate => true

# when not specified :validate defaults to true
Book.import columns, books

# result in table books
 title  | author
--------|--------
 Book 1 | NULL   
 Book 2 | NULL