Rails 7 adds only_numeric option to numericality validator

Aditya Bhutani

Aditya Bhutani

January 17, 2022

This blog is part of our  Rails 7 series.

Rails 7.0.1 introduces only_numeric option to numericality validator which specifies whether the value has to be an instance of Numeric. The default behavior is to attempt parsing the value if it is a String.

When the database field is a float column, the data will get serialized to the correct type. In the case of a JSON column, serialization doesn't take place.

As a resolution, Rails 7 has added only_numeric option to numericality validator.

We will see it in action.

To demonstrate, we need to generate a table that has a json/jsonb column.

1# migration
2create_table :users do |t|
3  t.jsonb :personal
4end

Before Validation

1# Model
2class User < ApplicationRecord
3  store_accessor :personal, %i[age tooltips]
4end
1# rails console
2>> User.create!(age: '29')
3=> #<User id: 1, preferences: {"age"=>"29"}, created_at: Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:09:43.045301000 UTC +00:00, updated_at: Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:09:43.045301000 UTC +00:00>

After Validation

1# Model
2class User < ApplicationRecord
3  store_accessor :personal, %i[age tooltips]
4  validates_numericality_of :age, only_numeric: true, allow_nil: true
5end
1# rails console
2>> User.create!(age: '29')
3=> 'raise_validation_error': Validation failed: Age is not a number (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)
4
5>> User.create!(age: 29)
6=> #<User id: 2, preferences: {"age"=>29}, created_at: Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:15:44.599934000 UTC +00:00, updated_at: Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:15:44.599934000 UTC +00:00>

Please check out this pull request for more details.

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