Question

I have this hash constant:

 EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS = {
   'Please, select' => '',
   '10-50' => '10-50',
   '51-100' => '51-100',
   '101-500' => '101-500',
   '501-1999' => '501-1999',
   '+2000' => '2000',

}

which I want to use in Rails form as options exactly in the order it is written. Using

<%= pf.select(:employee_num, GroupProfile::EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS.sort)%>

does not give the expected result.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

When you call sort on the Hash, you will effectively convert the Hash to an array of key/value arrays and then sort those using Array#<=> which will wreck your order. Whatever you hand to pf.select should end up going through options_for_select:

Accepts a container (hash, array, enumerable, your type) and returns a string of option tags. Given a container where the elements respond to first and last (such as a two-element array), the “lasts” serve as option values and the “firsts” as option text. Hashes are turned into this form automatically, so the keys become “firsts” and values become lasts.

Emphasis mine. So you should be able to say this if you’re using Ruby 1.9:

<%= pf.select(:employee_num, GroupProfile::EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS) %>

If you’re in 1.8 then you can change EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS to an array-of-arrays:

EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS = [
   [ 'Please, select', '' ],
   [ '10-50','10-50' ],
   [ '51-100', '51-100' ],
   [ '101-500', '101-500' ],
   [ '501-1999', '501-1999' ],
   [ '+2000', '2000' ]
]

to get the order right and hand that to pf.select. If you also need a Hash form then:

EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS_HASH = Hash[EMPLOYEE_NUM_OPTIONS]

should do the trick.

Again, if you’re using 1.9 then you’ll have ordered Hashes already so you don’t need all this extra work.