Ruby undefined method `strftime' for nil:NilClass
Solution 1
Shioyama thank you so much for suggesting this:
validates :request_date, :presence => true
I'm really going to invest the time in learning about the debugging and validation Rails promotes. Because of this I figured out specifically that the datepicker in JQuery wasn't passing through correctly. I went into my assests > javascripts > vacationrequests.js.coffee and found I had left () on the end like this:
jQuery ->
$('#vacationrequest_request_date').datepicker()
dateFormat: 'yy-mm-dd'
Once I removed the brackets like this:
jQuery ->
$('#vacationrequest_request_date').datepicker
dateFormat: 'yy-mm-dd'
Everything is working, Index, Show, Edit, Update, New. Thank you both for all the suggestions and showing me how to run this down.
Solution 2
First you have to make sure if there is 'request_date' filled before you create a record by applying ActiveRecord validations.
Secondly, you can use ruby's try method to avoid such exceptions
<%= @vacationrequest.try(:request_date).try(:strftime, '%B %e, %Y') %>
Happy Coding !
Update
In the newer version of Ruby, you can use &.
-> lonely operator
instead of the solution above. It is also called safe navigation operator.
<%= @vacationrequest&.request_date&.strftime('%B %e, %Y') %>
Solution 3
@vacationrequest.request_date
is nil, so the record you're looking at is missing the request date. It sounds like you have bad data. In this situation, I'd debug why by:
- Dumping the
@vacationrequest
in the view --<%= debug @vacationrequest %>
(or from your controller:fail @vacationrequest.inspect
). - Checking in Rails console (
rails c
) -- what doesVactionrequest.find(some_id)
yield? - Optionally, checking the DB entry.
However you're inputting vacation requests is not saving request dates, so there's probably a bug in your create
controller action, model schema, or model validation.
Comments
-
Alexander almost 2 years
I've only been working with Ruby for a short time and I've hit a wall today while working on a calendar to put requests on. I spent time searching through different undefinied method error documents on stackoverflow, the ruby guides, etc. as well as looking into strftime. I found a solution that partially solved my problem using try, but now it is not actually passing the strftime through to show on the request, even though the rails server is picking it up in the post. I can get to my calendar fine, and hit the new request button, fill out the form, but when I go to post that form the browsers gives me this:
undefined method `strftime' for nil:NilClass Extracted source (around line #3): 1: <h1><%= @vacationrequest.request_name %></h1> 2: 3: <p class="info">Requested For <%= @vacationrequest.request_date.strftime("%B %e, %Y") %></p> 4: 5: <%= simple_format @vacationrequest.message %> 6:
And I get this error on the Rails server:
Started GET "/vacationrequests/1" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-10-17 15:18:14 -0400 Processing by VacationrequestsController#show as HTML Parameters: {"id"=>"1"} ←[1m←[35mVacationrequest Load (0.0ms)←[0m SELECT "vacationrequests".* FROM "v acationrequests" WHERE "vacationrequests"."id" = ? LIMIT 1 [["id", "1"]] Rendered vacationrequests/show.html.erb within layouts/application (15.6ms) Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 31ms ActionView::Template::Error (undefined method strftime' for nil:NilClass): 1: <h1><%= @vacationrequest.request_date %></h1> 2: 3: <p class="info">Requested For <%= @vacationrequest.request_date.strftime( "%B %e, %Y") %></p> 4: 5: <%= simple_format @vacationrequest.message %> 6: app/views/vacationrequests/show.html.erb:3:inapp_views_vacationrequests_sho w_html_erb_217743956_18446544'
This is my show view:
<h1><%= @vacationrequest.request_name %></h1> <p class="info">Requested For <%= @vacationrequest.request_date.strftime("%B %e, %Y") %></p> <%= simple_format @vacationrequest.message %> <p> <%= link_to "Edit Request", edit_vacationrequest_path(@vacationrequest) %> | <%= link_to "Back to Requests", vacationrequests_path %> </p>
and this is the _form that the user puts the request information into:
<%= form_for @vacationrequest do |f| %> <% if @vacationrequest.errors.any? %> <div id="error_explanation"> <h2><%= pluralize(@vacationrequest.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this request from being saved: if this continue to happens please email the error to [email protected]</h2> <ul> <% @vacationrequest.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %> <li><%= msg %></li> <% end %> </ul> </div> <% end %> <div class="field"> <%= f.label :request_name %><br /> <%= f.text_field :request_name %> </div> <div class="field"> <%= f.label :request_date %><br /> <%= f.text_field :request_date %> </div> <div class="field"> <%= f.label :message %><br /> <%= f.text_area :message %> </div> <div class="actions"> <%= f.submit %> </div> <% end %>
Finally here are my show and index methods in my controller:
def index @vacationrequests = Vacationrequest.all @vacationrequests_by_date = @vacationrequests.group_by(&:request_date) @date = params[:date] ? Date.parse(params[:date]) : Date.today end def show @vacationrequest = Vacationrequest.find(params[:id]) end
Can anybody direct me to what is out of place or why this is nil? Thank you.
In response to the answer here is what I am now getting from the server:
Started POST "/vacationrequests" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-10-17 20:18:00 -0400 Processing by VacationrequestsController#create as HTML Parameters: {"utf8"=>"√", "authenticity_token"=>"E1+xXP0pAIQpwMZruswxIZIrTZB3b c3NlW3iRv9OLqU=", "vacationrequest"=>{"request_name"=>"One more time", "request_ date"=>"10/31/2012", "message"=>"Lucky number 7?"}, "commit"=>"Create Vacationre quest"} ←[1m←[35m (0.0ms)←[0m begin transaction ←[1m←[36mSQL (15.6ms)←[0m ←[1mINSERT INTO "vacationrequests" ("created_at", " message", "request_date", "request_name", "updated_at") VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?)←[ 0m [["created_at", Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:18:00 UTC +00:00], ["message", "Lucky nu mber 7?"], ["request_date", nil], ["request_name", "One more time"], ["updated_a t", Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:18:00 UTC +00:00]] ←[1m←[35m (109.2ms)←[0m commit transaction Redirected to http://localhost:3000/vacationrequests/7 Completed 302 Found in 125ms (ActiveRecord: 124.8ms) Started GET "/vacationrequests/7" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-10-17 20:18:01 -0400 Processing by VacationrequestsController#show as HTML Parameters: {"id"=>"7"} ←[1m←[36mVacationrequest Load (0.0ms)←[0m ←[1mSELECT "vacationrequests".* FRO M "vacationrequests" WHERE "vacationrequests"."id" = ? LIMIT 1←[0m [["id", "7"] ] Rendered vacationrequests/show.html.erb within layouts/application (15.6ms) Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 16ms ActionView::Template::Error (undefined method `strftime' for nil:NilClass): 1: <h1><%= @vacationrequest.request_name %></h1> 2: <%= debug @vacationrequest %> 3: <p class="info">Requested For <%= @vacationrequest.request_date.strftime( "%B %e, %Y") %></p> 4: 5: <%= simple_format @vacationrequest.message %> 6: app/views/vacationrequests/show.html.erb:3:in `_app_views_vacationrequests_sho w_html_erb___377763931_36688344'
I also used the view debug and checked my scheme and all of the attributes seemed to line up correctly.
As for the request in the comments here is my Vacationrequest model:
class Vacationrequest < ActiveRecord::Base attr_accessible :message, :request_name, :request_date end
Once again I can't thank you enough for your help.
Here is the schema:
ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20121016194123) do create_table "vacationrequests", :force => true do |t| t.string "request_name" t.date "request_date" t.text "message" t.datetime "created_at", :null => false t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false end end
and the create controller action code:
def create @vacationrequest = Vacationrequest.new(params[:vacationrequest]) if @vacationrequest.save redirect_to @vacationrequest, notice: "Created Request!" else render :new end end
As I'm looking at this, is part of the problem my schema being plural and my controller being singular? Thanks again.