Rails: How to check if "update_attributes" is going to fail?

To check if buyer.save is going to fail I use buyer.valid?:

def create
  @buyer = Buyer.new(params[:buyer])
  if @buyer.valid?
    my_update_database_method
    @buyer.save
  else
    ...
  end
end

How could I check if update_attributes is going to fail ?

def update 
  @buyer = Buyer.find(params[:id])
  if <what should be here?>
    my_update_database_method
    @buyer.update_attributes(params[:buyer])
  else
    ...
  end
end

it returns false if it was not done, same with save. save! will throw exceptions if you like that better. I'm not sure if there is update_attributes!, but it would be logical.

just do

if @foo.update_attributes(params)
  # life is good
else
  # something is wrong
end

http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/Base/update_attributes

Edit

Then you want this method you have to write. If you want to pre check params sanitation.

def params_are_sanitary?
  # return true if and only if all our checks are met
  # else return false
end

Edit 2

Alternatively, depending on your constraints

if Foo.new(params).valid? # Only works on Creates, not Updates
  @foo.update_attributes(params)
else
  # it won't be valid.
end