ruby on rails - 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