Introducing take as a replacement to the old behavior of first

activerecord/lib/active_record/querying.rb

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 module ActiveRecord
   module Querying
-    delegate :find, :first, :first!, :last, :last!, :all, :exists?, :any?, :many?, :to => :scoped
+    delegate :find, :take, :take!, :first, :first!, :last, :last!, :all, :exists?, :any?, :many?, :to => :scoped
     delegate :first_or_create, :first_or_create!, :first_or_initialize, :to => :scoped
     delegate :find_by, :find_by!, :to => :scoped
     delegate :destroy, :destroy_all, :delete, :delete_all, :update, :update_all, :to => :scoped

activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb

@@ -60,6 +60,25 @@ def find_by!(*args)
       where(*args).first!
     end
 
+    # Gives a record (or N records if a parameter is supplied) without any implied
+    # order. The order will depend on the database implementation.
+    # If an order is supplied it will be respected.
+    #
+    # Examples:
+    #
+    #   Person.take # returns an object fetched by SELECT * FROM people
+    #   Person.take(5) # returns 5 objects fetched by SELECT * FROM people LIMIT 5
+    #   Person.where(["name LIKE '%?'", name]).take
+    def take(limit = nil)
+      limit ? limit(limit).to_a : find_take
+    end
+
+    # Same as +take+ but raises <tt>ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound</tt> if no record
+    # is found. Note that <tt>take!</tt> accepts no arguments.
+    def take!
+      take or raise RecordNotFound
+    end
+
     # Find the first record (or first N records if a parameter is supplied).
     # If no order is defined it will order by primary key.
     #
@@ -329,6 +348,14 @@ def find_some(ids)
       end
     end
 
+    def find_take
+      if loaded?
+        @records.take(1)[0]
+      else
+        @take ||= limit(1).to_a[0]
+      end
+    end
+
     def find_first
       if loaded?
         @records.first

activerecord/test/cases/finder_test.rb

@@ -143,6 +143,26 @@ def test_find_by_sql_with_sti_on_joined_table
     assert_equal [Account], accounts.collect(&:class).uniq
   end
 
+  def test_take
+    assert_equal topics(:first), Topic.take
+  end
+
+  def test_take_failing
+    assert_nil Topic.where("title = 'This title does not exist'").take
+  end
+
+  def test_take_bang_present
+    assert_nothing_raised do
+      assert_equal topics(:second), Topic.where("title = 'The Second Topic of the day'").take!
+    end
+  end
+
+  def test_take_bang_missing
+    assert_raises ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound do
+      Topic.where("title = 'This title does not exist'").take!
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_first
     assert_equal topics(:second).title, Topic.where("title = 'The Second Topic of the day'").first.title
   end
@@ -197,7 +217,8 @@ def test_model_class_responds_to_last_bang
     end
   end
 
-  def test_first_and_last_with_integer_should_use_sql_limit
+  def test_take_and_first_and_last_with_integer_should_use_sql_limit
+    assert_sql(/LIMIT 3|ROWNUM <= 3/) { Topic.take(3).entries }
     assert_sql(/LIMIT 2|ROWNUM <= 2/) { Topic.first(2).entries }
     assert_sql(/LIMIT 5|ROWNUM <= 5/) { Topic.last(5).entries }
   end
@@ -218,7 +239,8 @@ def test_last_with_integer_and_reorder_should_not_use_sql_limit
     assert_no_match(/LIMIT/, query.first)
   end
 
-  def test_first_and_last_with_integer_should_return_an_array
+  def test_take_and_first_and_last_with_integer_should_return_an_array
+    assert_kind_of Array, Topic.take(5)
     assert_kind_of Array, Topic.first(5)
     assert_kind_of Array, Topic.last(5)
   end