ruby on rails - :class => "Insert Random Class Name Here" -

what point of doing this?

class user    has_many :students, :class_name => "coachstudent", foreign_key: "coach_user_id"  end   class coachstudent   belongs_to :student, :class_name => "user", :foreign_key => "student_user_id" end  

why?

why not user has many students, , student belongs user? that's traditional way, yes?

edit

my befuddlement stems fact there no student class per se. it's listed in code above. hence question.

ps. feel free rename post @ loss on how title it.

:class_name gives flexibility name associations whatever want , make code more readable , reusable. :foreign_key attribute again allows decide field want foreign key.

if go usual convention:

class user   has_many :students end  class coachstudent   belongs_to :student end 

activerecord default, use _id foreign key , try find class student associations. in case, want use :students association name , map coachstudent. flexibility :class_name convention.