module Sequel::Plugins::UpdateOrCreate

  1. lib/sequel/plugins/update_or_create.rb

The update_or_create plugin adds methods that make it easier to deal with objects which may or may not yet exist in the database. The first method is update_or_create, which updates an object if it exists in the database, or creates the object if it does not.

You can call update_or_create with a block:

Album.update_or_create(name: 'Hello') do |album|
  album.num_copies_sold = 1000
end

or provide two hashes, with the second one being the attributes to set.

Album.update_or_create({name: 'Hello'}, num_copies_sold: 1000)

In both cases, this will check the database to find the album with the name “Hello”. If such an album exists, it will be updated to set num_copies_sold to 1000. If no such album exists, an album with the name “Hello” and num_copies_sold 1000 will be created.

The second method is find_or_new, which returns the object from the database if it exists, or returns a new (unsaved) object if not. It has the same API as update_or_create, and operates identically to update_or_create except that it doesn’t persist any changes.

Usage:

# Make all model subclass support update_or_create
Sequel::Model.plugin :update_or_create

# Make the Album class support update_or_create
Album.plugin :update_or_create