Allows you to set all the attributes at once by passing in a hash with keys matching the attribute names (which again matches the column names). Sensitive attributes can be protected from this form of mass-assignment by using the attr_protected macro. Or you can alternatively specify which attributes can be accessed with the attr_accessible macro. Then all the attributes not included in that won’t be allowed to be mass-assigned.

Source Code

# File active_record/base.rb, line 2109
def attributes=(new_attributes, guard_protected_attributes = true)
  return if new_attributes.nil?
  attributes = new_attributes.dup
  attributes.stringify_keys!

  multi_parameter_attributes = []
  attributes = remove_attributes_protected_from_mass_assignment(attributes) if guard_protected_attributes

  attributes.each do |k, v|
    k.include?("(") ? multi_parameter_attributes << [ k, v ] : send(k + "=", v)
  end

  assign_multiparameter_attributes(multi_parameter_attributes)
end