--- title: "Active Support Improvements in Rails 5" description: "Rails 5 introduces number of new methods in Rails 5" canonical_url: "https://www.bigbinary.com/blog/active-support-improvements-in-Rails-5" markdown_url: "https://www.bigbinary.com/blog/active-support-improvements-in-Rails-5.md" --- # Active Support Improvements in Rails 5 Rails 5 introduces number of new methods in Rails 5 - Author: Abhishek Jain - Published: February 17, 2016 - Categories: Rails 5, Rails Rails 5 has added some nice enhancements to Active Support. This blog will go over some of those changes. ## Improvements in Date, Time and Datetime ### prev_day and next_day As the name of the methods suggests, `next_day` [returns next calendar date](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/18335). Similarly, `prev_day` returns previous calendar date. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:53:31 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_day => Sat, 13 Feb 2016 08:53:31 UTC +00:00 Time.current.prev_day => Thu, 11 Feb 2016 08:53:31 UTC +00:00 ``` ### Support for same_time option to next_week and prev_week In Rails 4.x `next_week` returns beginning of next week and `prev_week` returns beginning of previous week. In Rails 4.x these two methods also accept week day as a parameter. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:53:31 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_week => Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00:00 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_week(:tuesday) => Tue, 16 Feb 2016 00:00:00 UTC +00:00 Time.current.prev_week(:tuesday) => Tue, 02 Feb 2016 00:00:00 UTC +00:00 ``` By using week day as parameter we can get the date one week from now but the returned date is still the beginning of that date. How do we get one week from the current time. Rails 5 add an additional option `same_time: true` to solve this problem. Using this option, we can now get next week date from the current time. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:15:10 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_week => Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00:00 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_week(same_time: true) => Mon, 15 Feb 2016 09:15:20 UTC +00:00 Time.current.prev_week => Mon, 01 Feb 2016 00:00:00 UTC +00:00 Time.current.prev_week(same_time: true) => Mon, 01 Feb 2016 09:16:50 UTC +00:00 ``` ### on_weekend? This method returns `true` if the receiving date/time is a Saturday or Sunday. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:47:40 UTC +00:00 Time.current.on_weekend? => false Time.current.tomorrow => Sat, 13 Feb 2016 09:48:47 UTC +00:00 Time.current.tomorrow.on_weekend? => true ``` ### on_weekday? This method returns `true` if the receiving date/time is not a Saturday or Sunday. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:47:40 UTC +00:00 Time.current.on_weekday? => true Time.current.tomorrow => Sat, 13 Feb 2016 09:48:47 UTC +00:00 Time.current.tomorrow.on_weekday? => false ``` ### next_weekday and prev_weekday `next_weekday` returns next day that is not a weekend. Similarly, `prev_weekday` returns last day that is not a weekend. ```ruby Time.current => Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:47:40 UTC +00:00 Time.current.next_weekday => Mon, 15 Feb 2016 09:55:14 UTC +00:00 Time.current.prev_weekday => Thu, 11 Feb 2016 09:55:33 UTC +00:00 ``` ### Time.days_in_year ```ruby # Gives number of days in current year, if year is not passed. Time.days_in_year => 366 # Gives number of days in specified year, if year is passed. Time.days_in_year(2015) => 365 ``` ## Improvements in Enumerable ### pluck `pluck` method is now [added to](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/20350) Enumerable objects. ```ruby users = [{id: 1, name: 'Max'}, {id: 2, name: 'Mark'}, {id: 3, name: 'George'}] users.pluck(:name) => ["Max", "Mark", "George"] # Takes multiple arguments as well users.pluck(:id, :name) => [[1, "Max"], [2, "Mark"], [3, "George"]] ``` one great improvement in `ActiveRecord` due to this method addition is that when relation is already loaded then instead of firing query with pluck, it uses Enumerable#pluck to get data. ```ruby # In Rails 4.x users = User.all SELECT `users`.* FROM `users` users.pluck(:id, :name) SELECT "users"."id", "users"."name" FROM "users" => [[2, "Max"], [3, "Mark"], [4, "George"]] # In Rails 5 users = User.all SELECT "users".* FROM "users" # does not fire any query users.pluck(:id, :name) => [[1, "Max"], [2, "Mark"], [3, "George"]] ``` ### without [This method](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/19157) returns a copy of enumerable without the elements passed to the method. ```ruby vehicles = ['Car', 'Bike', 'Truck', 'Bus'] vehicles.without("Car", "Bike") => ["Truck", "Bus"] vehicles = {car: 'Hyundai', bike: 'Honda', bus: 'Mercedes', truck: 'Tata'} vehicles.without(:bike, :bus) => {:car=>"Hyundai", :truck=>"Tata"} ``` ### Array#second_to_last and Array#third_to_last ```ruby ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'].second_to_last => "d" ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'].third_to_last => "c" ``` PR for these methods can be found [here](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/23583). ### Integer#positive? and Integer#negative? `positive?` returns true if integer is positive. `negative?` returns true if integer is negative. ```ruby 4.positive? => true 4.negative? => false -4.0.positive? => false -4.0.negative? => true ``` Commit for these methods can be found [here](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/e54277a4). These changes have now been [added to Ruby 2.3](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/a837be87fdf580ac4fd58c4cb2f1ee16bab11b99/NEWS#L127) also. ### Array#inquiry Rails team has [added](https://github.com/georgeclaghorn/rails/commit/c64b99ecc98341d504aced72448bee758f3cfdaf) `ArrayInquirer` to `ActiveSupport` which gives a friendlier way to check its contents. `Array#inquiry` is a shortcut for wrapping the receiving array in an `ArrayInquirer` ```ruby users = [:mark, :max, :david] array_inquirer1 = ActiveSupport::ArrayInquirer.new(users) # creates ArrayInquirer object which is same as array_inquirer1 above array_inquirer2 = users.inquiry array_inquirer2.class => ActiveSupport::ArrayInquirer # provides methods like: array_inquirer2.mark? => true array_inquirer2.john? => false array_inquirer2.any?(:john, :mark) => true array_inquirer2.any?(:mark, :david) => true array_inquirer2.any?(:john, :louis) => false ``` ## Links - [Human page](https://www.bigbinary.com/blog/active-support-improvements-in-Rails-5)