How to get an array of table names in ruby

Question

I'm trying to get the output of the query 'SHOW TABLES FROM database_name' into an array using the ActiveRecord database connection. I can't seem to figure out how to do this. can someone please enlighten me?

-C

Answer 1

Use what ActiveRecord gives you out of the box:

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables

Answer 2

I tried

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("DESCRIBE TABLE table_name")

and was told to check my SQL manual. Doing so, I found that

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("DESCRIBE table_name").each{|r| p r }

worked. Put whatever actual logic you need in the block.