On 26.10.2008 16:54, Stephan Meier wrote: > But how can i init a big amount of attributes with empty strings. I'd use nil as the marker for uninitialized. This happens to be the default and saves the overhead of all the empty strings. You can deal with those nils later, i.e. when changing or outputting them, e.g. def modify_whatever(s) (@whatever ||= "") << s end def print_whatever print @whatever || "" end You can even automate this by writing your own attr_accessor method that will define getters like def foo @foo || "" end > And overwrite the empty string if the field of the form is filled with > some value. Form, what form? > I try update_attributes(hash) with no success. Can you be more specific about what you are really trying to do? Is this web, UI or what? Kind regards robert