Add ActiveRecord::Base#slice to slice method calls

activerecord/lib/active_record/core.rb

 require 'active_support/concern'
+require 'active_support/core_ext/hash/indifferent_access'
 require 'thread'
 
 module ActiveRecord
@@ -326,6 +327,11 @@ def inspect
       "#<#{self.class} #{inspection}>"
     end
 
+    # Returns a hash of the given methods with their names as keys and returned values as values.
+    def slice(*methods)
+      Hash[methods.map { |method| [method, public_send(method)] }].with_indifferent_access
+    end
+
     private
 
     # Under Ruby 1.9, Array#flatten will call #to_ary (recursively) on each of the elements

activerecord/test/cases/base_test.rb

@@ -2057,4 +2057,16 @@ def type_cast value
   def test_typecasting_aliases
     assert_equal 10, Topic.select('10 as tenderlove').first.tenderlove
   end
+
+  def test_slice
+    company = Company.new(:rating => 1, :name => "37signals", :firm_name => "37signals")
+    hash = company.slice(:name, :rating, "arbitrary_method")
+    assert_equal hash[:name], company.name
+    assert_equal hash['name'], company.name
+    assert_equal hash[:rating], company.rating
+    assert_equal hash['arbitrary_method'], company.arbitrary_method
+    assert_equal hash[:arbitrary_method], company.arbitrary_method
+    assert_nil hash[:firm_name]
+    assert_nil hash['firm_name']
+  end
 end