validation - How to avoid to update record in self referenced model due to not refers to itself and also not to be duplicate references -

i have self referenced model:

class component < activerecord::base   has_and_belongs_to_many :allergens   has_many :cqnames, as: :cqnable   has_many :inclusions   has_many :ingredients, :through => :inclusions   accepts_nested_attributes_for :cqnames, allow_destroy: true   accepts_nested_attributes_for :ingredients   accepts_nested_attributes_for :inclusions, allow_destroy: true   translates :name, :description   validates :name, presence: true, uniqueness: true     def self.get_children(ing)     @tree ||= []     if ing.ingredients.nil?       return @tree     else       @tree << ing.ingredients       get_children(ing.ingredients)     end   end end 

i have avoid self referencing same record , records referenced when respecting record updating.

experiment before_validation...:

class component < activerecord::base   before_validation :hokus   has_and_belongs_to_many :allergens   has_many :cqnames, as: :cqnable   has_many :inclusions   has_many :ingredients, :through => :inclusions   has_many :inverse_inclusions, :class_name => "inclusion", :foreign_key => "ingredient_id"   has_many :composites, :through => :inverse_inclusions, :source => :component   accepts_nested_attributes_for :cqnames, allow_destroy: true   accepts_nested_attributes_for :ingredients   accepts_nested_attributes_for :inclusions, allow_destroy: true   translates :name, :description   validates :name, presence: true, uniqueness: true     require 'set'   def self.pokus(ing)     avoid = set.new([self])     q = true     if ing.ingredients.present?       ing.ingredients.each |record|         q = false if avoid.include? record       end     end     q   end    def hokus     component.pokus(self)   end  end 

if want simpler version should job done may do.

require 'set' def self.get_children(ing)   tree = set.new    recursive = lambda {|recs|     recs.ingredients.each |record|       recursive.call(record.ingredients) if tree.add?(record)     end          }    recursive.call(ing.ingredients)    tree.to_a end