Can i make Rails this code more elegant? -

i have class:

class user < activerecord::base    attr_accessor :name, :email, :hr_id    def initialize(attributes = {:name => "missing name",:email => "missing email",:hr_id => "missing hr id"})       @name = attributes[:name]       @email = attributes[:email]       @hr_id = attributes[:hr_id]   end    def print_employee     "employee no: #{@hr_id} - #{@name} (#{@email})"   end end 

and use this:

def     employee = user.new     employee.name = "dude"     employee.email  = "dude@gmail.com"     employee.hr_id = "129836561"     @employee = employee.print_employee end 

my question is, how can make code in help shorter , more elegant?

i tried:

employee = user.new('dude','dude@gmail.com','129836561') @employee = employee.print_employee  

but got errors.

you looking after_initialize and/or after_find callbacks. see docs

after_initialize :set_default_values  private  def set_default_values   self.name ||= 'missing name' end 

note

as apneadiving has mentioned, not correct way approach problem think best answer question how make code more elegant. best practice, search service classes apneadiving's answer , how use them in controller set default values.