Make and use temporary attribute for a form - ruby-on-rails

Question

Ruby on Rails 4.1
The form has an option to select the table column name. I want to input text into the table column selected by the form. To do this I am trying to make temporary attributes that the form can use to store the value and examine in the create method. Then assign the text to the correct column, then save.
Controller:
def new
#word = Word.new
#language = Word.new(params[:language])
#translation = Word.new(params[:translation])
#language_options = Word.column_names
end
def create
#word = Word.new(word_params)
if #language == "arabic"
#word.arabic == #translation
end
respond_to do |format|
if #word.save
format.html { redirect_to #word, notice: 'Word was successfully created.' }
format.json { render :show, status: :created, location: #word }
else
format.html { render :new }
format.json { render json: #word.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
The form:
<%= simple_form_for(#word) do |f| %>
<%= f.error_notification %>
<div class="form-inputs">
<%= f.input :name, placeholder: 'English String' %>
<%= f.input :language, collection: #language_options %>
<%= f.input :translation, placeholder: 'Translated String' %>
</div>
<div class="form-actions">
<%= f.button :submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
This is the error I get:
undefined method `language' for #<Word:0x007f6116b1bcb8>
Which is because there is not a language attribute for the form to use. So I was trying to make a temporary one in the controller new().
Is there a way to do this or do I have to make :language and :translation in a database table to reference in the form?

Answer 1

Virtual Attribute
You may benefit from using an attr_accessor in your model
This creates a virtual attribute which works the same as the "real" attributes in your model:
#app/models/word.rb
Class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessor :column_name
end
This will allow you to assign values to this attribute which won't be saved into the db, which sounds like what you want:
#app/views/words/new.html.erb
<%= simple_form_for(#word) do |f| %>
<%= f.input :column_name do %>
<%= f.select :column_name, #language_options %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
When you submit this form, it will then give you the column_name attribute to edit:
#app/controllers/words_controller.rb
Class WordsController < ApplicationController
def create
# ... you'll have "column_name" attribute available
end
end