ruby on rails find_or_initialize
On rails 3.2 I would do
attributes = {}Model.where(attributes).first_or_initializeDocumentation http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/Relation/first_or_initialize
Considering the sheer number of fields you are using, you probably are better off manually finding the record and initializing it if it does not exist:
attributes = { country: country, engine: engine, power: power, body: body etc ...}record = where(attributes).firstrecord = new(attributes) unless record
You can define method like this in your model
def self.find_or_initialize_by_field(params) send("find_or_initialize_by_#{params.keys.join("_and_")}", *params.values)endand then you can call this method like
YourModel.find_or_initialize_by_field({country: country, engine: engine})