NameError: undefined local variable or method `user' for main:Object

Question

I'm following through the Ruby on Rails tutorial, and when attempting to save a user in Rails Console (sandbox mode), I get the following error:

NameError: undefined local variable or method `user' for main:Object
from (irb):7

Note: I typed in User.new, input a name and email, then user.save, and got the error above.

Full code:

C:\Sites\rails_projects\sample_app>bundle exec rake db:migrate
==  CreateUsers: migrating ====================================================
-- create_table(:users)
   -> 0.0020s
==  CreateUsers: migrated (0.0020s) ===========================================


C:\Sites\rails_projects\sample_app>rails console --sandbox
Loading development environment in sandbox (Rails 4.0.1)
Any modifications you make will be rolled back on exit
irb(main):001:0> User.new
=> #<User id: nil, name: nil, email: nil, created_at: nil, updated_at: nil>
<ame: "Andrew Ghobrial", email: "[email protected]")
=> #<User id: nil, name: "Andrew Ghobrial", email: "[email protected]",
created_at: nil, updated_at: nil>
irb(main):004:0> user.save
NameError: undefined local variable or method `user' for main:Object
        from (irb):4
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:90:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:9:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands.rb:62:in `<top (required)>'
        from bin/rails:4:in `require'
        from bin/rails:4:in `<main>'
irb(main):006:0> user.save
NameError: undefined local variable or method `user' for main:Object
        from (irb):6
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:90:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:9:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands.rb:62:in `<top (required)>'
        from bin/rails:4:in `require'
        from bin/rails:4:in `<main>'
irb(main):007:0> user
NameError: undefined local variable or method `user' for main:Object
        from (irb):7
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:90:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:9:in `start'
        from C:/RailsInstaller/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems
/railties-4.0.1/lib/rails/commands.rb:62:in `<top (required)>'
        from bin/rails:4:in `require'
        from bin/rails:4:in `<main>'`

Solution 1

So, as @Phlip said, your User.new isn't assigned to a variable. If you do:

user = User.new(name: "Andrew Ghobrial", email: "[email protected]")

user.save

That will work, assuming your users table has name and email columns, and your user model looks something like:

class User << ActiveRecord::Base

  attr_accessor :name, :email

end

Solution 2

While the capitalisation answers haven't been upvoted, the very first line of the original post IRB proves this was the issue. My resource was created with a lowercase title:

rails g resource user

After the db migration:

Typing "user.count" in IRB gets the NameError

Typing "User.count" gets the expected result (for my empty table):

    irb(main):009:0> User.count
   (0.4ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "user"
    => 0

So the IRB is case sensitive on active resources and seemingly must be capitalised in declarations. Typing "User" will return a list of the field/column names.

Comments

[Andrew]

That still gives me this error: 'user' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file. However, in my user.rb file under the models folder, I have: class User < Activerecord::Base end

[CDub]

Do you have fields defined in the create_user migration for name and email? Those will need to be set on the User model. See my edit.

[Andrew]

Even after adding those fields, I'm still receiving that error. Even typing in user alone gives me that.

[CDub]

Have you closed and restarted the rails console? In your app directory, do rails c

[CDub]

It could also have to do with running in sandbox mode in development... You might want to try just straight development mode without sandbox (again, e.g. rails c)

[Andrew]

Now when I input: user = User.new(name: "Andrew Ghobrial", email: "[email protected]") It gives me the error syntax error, unexpected tLSHFT, expecting '<' or ';' or '\n' Pretty stumped myself.

[CDub]

I'm still not convinced your app/models/user.rb is correct. Would you post that?

[Andrew]

class User << ActiveRecord::Base attr_accessor :name, :email end

[CDub]

Dumb question, but if it's all on one line like that, it'll need to be: class User << ActiveRecord::Base; attr_accessor :name, :email; end - or did it just paste that way in the comment? It might be mor helpful to add that to your question so others can see it as well.

[Nathan Tuggy]

This feels as though it's quite useful, but not for this question, which was verified as having a very different root cause than simple capitalization.