Collection Problem

answer.rb

# Answer model

class Answer < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :respondent
  belongs_to :question
end

comment.rb

# Comment model


class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :respondent
  belongs_to :question

  def self.get_collected_data_by(location)
    data = []
   
    respondents = Respondent.completed.find_all_by_office_id(location)
    
    answers = Answer.find_all_by_respondent_id(respondents)
    comments = find_all_by_respondent_id(respondents)
    
    respondents.each do |respondent|
      hash = { 
        name:       respondent.name, 
        #...
      }
      
      data << hash
    end
    
    data
  end
end

problem.md

I am attempting to call Comment.get_collected_data_by() with a specific office. This method's purpose is to aggregate a bunch of data together into an array (data). I need it to create a hash of aggregated data per respondent.

To hopefully make database calls minimal, I am pulling all the data I need in the 3 calls:

• respondents = Respondent.completed.find_all_by_office_id(location)
• answers = Answer.find_all_by_respondent_id(respondents)
• comments = find_all_by_respondent_id(respondents)

I then enumerate through respondents and I need to grab just the answers of that respondent. Is there an easy way to grab them out of the answers variable?

Respondent.rb

# Respondent model

class Respondent < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :office
  has_many :comments
  has_many :answers
end

What I could do is create this:

ans = {}
answers.each do |answer|
  ans[answer.respondent_id] = [] unless ans[answer.respondent_id]
  ans[answer.respondent_id] << answer
end

This would create a hash that I can easily pull answers from given a respondent_id. This doesnt seem like the best way to do this.