How can I overwrite a getter method in an ActiveRecord model?

Question

I'm trying to overwrite a getter method for an ActiveRecord model. I have an attribute called name in the model Category, and I'd like to be able to do something like this:

def name   name_trans || name end 

If name_trans attribute is not nil, then return it, else return name attribute. How would I do this?

This should then be called normally like this:

@category.name 

Answer 1

The Rails Style Guide recommends using self[:attr] over read_attribute(:attr).

You can use it like this:

def name   name_trans || self[:name] end