ActiveRecord Query Union

Here's a quick little module I wrote that allows you to UNION multiple scopes. It also returns the results as an instance of ActiveRecord::Relation.

module ActiveRecord::UnionScope
  def self.included(base)
    base.send :extend, ClassMethods
  end

  module ClassMethods
    def union_scope(*scopes)
      id_column = "#{table_name}.id"
      sub_query = scopes.map { |s| s.select(id_column).to_sql }.join(" UNION ")
      where "#{id_column} IN (#{sub_query})"
    end
  end
end

Here's the gist: https://gist.github.com/tlowrimore/5162327

Edit:

As requested, here's an example of how UnionScope works:

class Property < ActiveRecord::Base
  include ActiveRecord::UnionScope

  # some silly, contrived scopes
  scope :active_nearby,     -> { where(active: true).where('distance <= 25') }
  scope :inactive_distant,  -> { where(active: false).where('distance >= 200') }

  # A union of the aforementioned scopes
  scope :active_near_and_inactive_distant, -> { union_scope(active_nearby, inactive_distant) }
end

I also have encountered this problem, and now my go-to strategy is to generate SQL (by hand or using to_sql on an existing scope) and then stick it in the from clause. I can't guarantee it's any more efficient than your accepted method, but it's relatively easy on the eyes and gives you a normal ARel object back.

watched_news_posts = Post.joins(:news => :watched).where(:watched => {:user_id => id})
watched_topic_posts = Post.joins(:post_topic_relationships => {:topic => :watched}).where(:watched => {:user_id => id})

Post.from("(#{watched_news_posts.to_sql} UNION #{watched_topic_posts.to_sql}) AS posts")

You can do this with two different models as well, but you need to make sure they both "look the same" inside the UNION -- you can use select on both queries to make sure they will produce the same columns.

topics = Topic.select('user_id AS author_id, description AS body, created_at')
comments = Comment.select('author_id, body, created_at')

Comment.from("(#{comments.to_sql} UNION #{topics.to_sql}) AS comments")