Hi,

I often have tables that refernce a sub-table that contain types.  e.g.
an addresses table might have a field called "address_type_id" that
references a single row in the "address_types" table.

When I display this information a web page with rails, this is all
fine.  However in the address_types table (for example) I would like to
have a boolean column called 'active'.  So that if for new records a
particular type should not be selected, I can add criteria to the SQL
that gets the values to populate a drop down list to only get types
where active = 1 (true).

What I would like some input on is how do I deal with legacy records in
the (for example) addresses table.  When I display old records that
might reference an address type that has been made in-active (e.g it
references a type that has since had its active field set to 0), it
will not find the value in the drop down list.

Does this make sence?

What would be an elegant solution to this problem in rails?

Thanks for any input,
Regards,
Richard