Rails: how and where to add this method - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have an app where I retrieve a list of users from a specific country.
I did this in the UsersController:
#fromcanada = User.find(:all, :conditions => { :country => 'canada' })
and then turned it into a scope on the User model
scope :canada, where(:country => 'Canada').order('created_at DESC')
but I also want to be able to retrieve a random person or multiple persons from the country. I found this method that's supposed to be an efficient way to retrieve a random user from the database.
module ActiveRecord
class Base
def self.random
if (c = count) != 0
find(:first, :offset =>rand(c))
end
end
end
end
However, I have a few questions about how to add it, and how the syntax works.
Where would I put that code? Direct in the User model?
Syntax: so that I don't use code that I don't understand, can you explain how the syntax is working? I don't get (c = count). What is count counting? What is rand(c) doing? Is it finding the first one starting at the offset? If rand is an expensive method (hence the need to create a different more efficient random method), why use the expensive 'rand' in this new more efficient random method?
How could I add the call to random on my find method in the UsersController? How to add it to the scope in the model?
Building on question 3, is there a way to get two or three random users?

Answer 1

I wouldn't monkey patch that (or anything else!) into ActiveRecord, putting that into your User would make more sense.
The count is counting how many elements there are in your table and storing that number in c. Then rand(c) gives you a random integer in the interval [0,c) (i.e. 0 <= rand(c) < c). The :offset works the way you think it does.
rand isn't terribly expensive but doing order by random() inside the database can be very expensive. The random method that you're looking at is just a convenient way to get a random record/object from the database.
Adding it to your own User would look something like this:
def self.random
n = scoped.count
scoped.offset(rand(n)).first
end
That would allow you to chain random after a bunch of scopes:
u = User.canadians_eh.some_other_scope.random
but the result of random would be a single user so your chaining would stop there.
If you wanted multiple users you'd want to call random multiple times until you got the number of users you wanted. You could try this:
def self.random
n = scoped.count
scoped.offset(rand(n))
end
us = User.canadians_eh.random.limit(3)
to get three random users but the users would be clustered together in whatever order the database ended up with after your other scopes and that's probably not what you're after. If you want three you'd be better off with something like this:
# In User...
def self.random
n = scoped.count
scoped.offset(rand(n)).first
end
# Somewhere else...
scopes = User.canadians_eh.some_other_scope
users = 3.times.each_with_object([]) do |_, users|
users << scopes.random
scopes = scopes.where('id != :latest', :latest => users.last.id)
end
You'd just grab a random user, update your scope chain to exclude them, and repeat until you're done. You would, of course, want to make sure you had three users first.
You might want to move the ordering out of your canada scope: one scope, one task.

Answer 2

That code is injecting a new method into ActiveRecord::Base. I would put it in lib/ext/activerecord/base.rb. But you can put it anywhere you want.
count is a method being called on self. self will be some class inheriting from ActiveRecord::Base, eg. User. User.count returns the number of user records (sql: SELECT count(*) from users;). rand is a ruby stdlib method Kernel#rand. rand(c) returns a random integer in the Range 0...c and c was previously computed by calling #count. rand is not expensive.
You don't call random with find, User#random is a find, it returns one random record from all User records. In your controller you say User.random and it returns a single random record (or nil if there are no user records at all).
modify the AR::Base::random method like so:
module ActiveRecord
class Base
def self.random( how_many = 1 )
if (c = count) != 0
res = (0..how_many).inject([]) do |m,i|
m << find(:first, :offset =>rand(c))
end
how_many == 1 ? res.first : res
end
end
end
end
User.random(3) # => [<User Rand1>,<User Rand2>,<User Rand3>]