Question

Absolute RoR newbie here, I’m trying to render out multiple leagues in a loop, incrementing the div_# each time, here’s a cut down version, without the html. It works when I hard code div_1 or div_2 to be sorted, but div_name doesn’t work, even though it has the right contents I need it to be seen as the array.

<%  div_1 = Array.new
    div_1 << { :Name => 'Rob', :Played => '2', :Won => '1', :Lost => 1, :Points => 4}

    div_2 = Array.new
    div_2 << { :Name => 'Gavin', :Played => '2', :Won => '1', :Lost => 1, :Points => 4}

    for i in (1..2) 

    i = i.to_s
    div_name = "div_" + i 

    div_name.sort_by { |position| position[:Points] }.reverse!.each do |position| %>

<%= position[:Name] %>

Answer 1

There are lots of problems here:

div_1 = Array.new
div_1 << { :Name => 'Rob', :Played => '2', :Won => '1', :Lost => 1, :Points => 4}

div_1 is now an array with a single element, which is a hash. You don’t need an array if you’ll just have one element in it.

for i in (1..2) 

Where’s the block for this loop? After that statement, i is still undefined, so when you call

i = i.to_s

you’ll get a NameError.

div_name = "div_" + i 

Even if i == 1, div_name will be a string with value ‘div_1’, and not a copy or instance of the div_1 variable you define above.

div_name.sort_by { |position| position[:Points] }.reverse!.each do |position| %>

Now you’re trying to call sort_by on a string, which doesn’t respond to that, because it doesn’t make sense.

<%= position[:Name] %>

You don’t have a variable named position defined at this scope.

Also, when you find yourself putting lots of logic inside of a view within <% %> tags, that’s a sign that you need to move that code elsewhere, like to the controller. You could define and calculate @positions as an array of hashes in the controller, and then in the view do something like:

<% @positions.each do |position| %>
  <%= position[:name] %>
<% end %>