Find the associations for an ActiveRecord class at run-time?
I think the ActiveRecord::Reflection class may be what you're looking for. From the documentation:
Account.reflect_on_all_associations # returns an array of all associations Account.reflect_on_all_associations(:has_many) # returns an array of all has_many associations
Sounds like a pretty silly thing to do run-time. What exactly are you trying to achieve? I assume that there are a simple and more commonly used solution to whatever your problem is.
If I had to, I'd use TheModel.read_inheritable_attribute(:reflections).