What are Rails associations and how do they work?

What are Rails associations and how do they work?

Rails associations are a way to set up relationships between different models in a Rails application. They help in organizing data and making it easier to query related records.

Can you explain the different types of associations?

Sure! The main types of associations in Rails are: belongs_to, has_many, has_one, and has_many :through. Each defines a different relationship between models.

What does has_many :through mean?

has_many :through is used to set up a many-to-many relationship between two models through a third model. It allows you to access associated records easily.

Can you give me an example of how to set this up in code?

Absolutely! For example, if you have Author, Book, and Authorship models, you can set it up like this: Author has_many :authorships, Authorship belongs_to :author, and Book has_many :authorships.