Hopefully a simple question... I''ve got a table that, using the STI, contains some columns that are specific to one subclass or another. How do I represent this fact in Ruby? Specifically, in the following example, how do I keep someone from creating an instance of Classb and assigning a value to typeconly (an attribute that is only supposed to be applicable to objects of type Classc)? DATABASE: create table classas ( id INTEGER AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, type VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL, genericattr VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL, typebonly INTEGER, -- for Classb instances only typeconly VARCHAR(10) -- for Classc instances only ); RUBY: class Classa < ActiveRecord::Base; end class Classb < Classa # something that says attribute typebonly applies to this class only? end class Classc < Classa # something that says attribute typeconly applies to this class only? end Thanks. -d -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.