Rails Tutorial ch 7.2.3 has_password? undefined method - ruby-on-rails

Question

In Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial, ch 7.2.3, rspec is returns the following errors:
Failures:
1) User has_password? method should be true if the passwords match
Failure/Error: #user.has_password?(#attr[:password].should be_true)
NoMethodError:
undefined method `has_password?' for nil:NilClass
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:132:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
2) User has_password? method should be false if the passwords don't match
Failure/Error: #user.has_password?("invalid").should be_false
NoMethodError:
undefined method `has_password?' for nil:NilClass
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:136:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
Finished in 0.23931 seconds
18 examples, 2 failures
Failed examples:
rspec ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:131 # User has_password? method should be true if the passwords match
rspec ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:135 # User has_password? method should be false if the passwords don't match
In the console I'm also getting an undefined local variable error on 'password confirmation'
I've thoroughly checked my code and can't find the discrepancy but I'm obviously doing it wrong.
here's my users model:
require 'digest'
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessor :password
attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation
email_regex = /\A[\w+\-.]+#[a-z\d\-.]+\.[a-z]+\z/i
validates :name, :presence => true,
:length => { :maximum => 50 }
validates :email, :presence => true,
:format => { :with => email_regex },
:uniqueness => { :case_sensitive => false }
# Automatically create the virtual attribute 'password_confirmation'.
validates :password, :presence => true,
:confirmation => true,
:length => { :within => 6..40 }
before_save :encrypt_password
def has_password?(submitted_password)
self.encrypted_password == encrypt(submitted_password)
end
private
def encrypt_password
self.salt = make_salt if new_record?
self.encrypted_password = encrypt(password)
end
def encrypt(string)
secure_hash("#{salt}--#{string}")
end
def make_salt
secure_hash("#{Time.now.utc}--#{password}")
end
def secure_hash(string)
Digest::SHA2.hexdigest(string)
end
end

Answer 1

Make sure this bit is in your spec, sounds like it's missing
before(:each) do
#user = User.create!(#attr)
end