Use normalizes insted of before_* callbacks in Rails

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:58:57 +0000

It happens you need some field in the database to not contain an empty string, but to be NULL. For example, a unique index has been added to this field, meaning there can only be one record with an empty string. However, if the field has a NULL value, it is unique and there can be multiple such records. If you work with Ruby on Rails, I recommend using the normalizes method added in version 7.1 for this purpose. You might think the same result could be achieved using the before_validation or before_save callbacks, but this isn’t the case. Unfortunately, the callbacks won’t be triggered when calling the update_column, update_columns or update_all methods, and therefore the field won’t be normalized. Don’t be afraid to populate fields with NULL values; otherwise, you’ll fill them with junk data.

UNIQUE on Artem Yegorov

Use normalizes insted of before_* callbacks in Rails