How to get attr_accessor really working in rails?

Question

Here are the code snippets which are working for me

User Model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  def full_name
    [first_name,last_name].join(" ")
  end

  def full_name=(name)
    split = name.split(" ",2)
    self.first_name = split.first
    self.last_name = split.last
  end
end

Then here are the views files

Show File

<h1>
    <%= @user.full_name %>
</h1>

Edit File

<div class="field">
    <%= f.label :full_name %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :full_name %>
</div>

This works perfectly fine for me.

I have read attr_accessor works same as

  def full_name
    [first_name,last_name].join(" ")
  end

  def full_name=(name)
    split = name.split(" ",2)
    self.first_name = split.first
    self.last_name = split.last
  end

So I tried like

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessor :full_name
end

I am not able to figure out what else should be done.

Neither is shows complete name in show page nor update the same in the database when form gets submitted.

Answer 1

It is not correct. attr_accessor works like

def full_name
  @full_name
end

def full_name=(value)
  @full_name = value
end

It just creates primitive getter / setter for your instance variable. If you need any kind of advanced processing (split / join in your case), you need to define getter and setter method yourself.