Question

I have something like:

<%= @votes %>

With just outputs a string like:

123

Is there a simple way to wrap each character with some html with a helper?

<span class="outerclass">
  <span class="innerclass">
  1
  </span>
</span>

<span class="outerclass">
  <span class="innerclass">
  2
  </span>
</span>

<span class="outerclass">
  <span class="innerclass">
  3
  </span>
</span>

Answer 1

You could create a helper similar to this:

def wrap_each_char(string, &block)
  string.each_char.map(&block).join
end

Then use it like this (erb):

<%- @votes = "123" -%>
<%- wrap_each_char(@votes) do |c| -%>
  <span class="outer"><span class="inner"><%= c %></span></span>
<%- end -%>

Update: The above example represents one way to pass block level content to a helper, but it’s worth noting that this particular example can be simplified by just using the each_char method on the string and avoiding the helper altogether:

<%- @votes.each_char do |c| -%>
  <span class="outer"><span class="inner"><%= c %></span></span>
<%- end -%>