Question

I’m using a select field in a Rails app that is NOT tied to a related model, but stores integer values for a static series of options , i.e.,

<%= select (:this_model, :this_field, [['Option1',1],['Option2',2],['Option3',3],['Option4',4]] ) %>

In a show/ index view, if I want to display the option text (i.e. Option1, Option2, etc) rather than the integer value stored in the database, how do I achieve this?

Thanks for helping a noob learn the ropes!

EDIT

Based on Thorsten’s suggestion below, I implemented the following. But it is returning nil, and I can’t figure out why.

Invoice model:

@@payment_status_data = { 1 => "Pending Invoice" , 2 => "Invoiced" , 3 => "Deposit Received", 4 => "Paid in Full"}

  def text_for_payment_status
     @@payment_status_data[payment_status]
  end

Invoice show view:

Payment Status: <%= @invoice.text_for_payment_status %>

In the console:

irb > i=Invoice.find(4)
=> [#<Invoice id: 4, payment_status: 1 >]
irb > i.text_for_payment_status
=> nil

I’ve tried defining the hash with and without quotes around the keys. What am I missing?

Answer 1

something like this would work:

<%= form_for @my_model_object do |form| %>
  <%= form.label :column_name "Some Description" %>
  <%= form.select :field_that_stores_id, options_for_select({"text1" => "key1", "text 2" => "key2"}) %>
<% end %>

Update

If you later want to display the text you can get it from a simple hash like this:

{"key1" => "text 1", "key2" => "text2"}[@my_object.field_that_stores_id]

But you better store this hash somewhere in a central place like the model.

class MyModel < ActiveRecord
  @@my_select_something_data = {"key1" => "text 1", "key2" => "text2"}
  def text_for_something_selectable
    @@my_select_something_data[field_that_stores_id]
  end
end

Then you can use it in your views like

@my_object.text_for_something_selectable

There are many possible variations of this. But this should work and you would have all information in a central place.

Update

Ok, I used something similar for our website. We need to store return_headers for rma. Those need to store a return reason as a code. Those codes are defined in an external MS SQL Server Database (with which the website exchanges lots of data, like orders, products, and much more). In the external db table are much more return reasons stored than I actually need, so I just took out a few of them. Still must make sure, the codes are correct.

So here goes he model:

class ReturnHeader < AciveRecord::Base
  @@return_reason_keys = {"010" => "Wrong Produc",
                          "DAM" => "Damaged",
                          "AMT" => "Wrong Amount"}

  def self.return_reason_select
    @@return_reason_keys.invert
  end

  def return_reason
    @@return_reason_keys[nav_return_reason_code]
  end
end

Model contains more code of course, but that’s the part that matters. Relevant here is, that keys in the hash are strings, not symbols.

In the views i use it like this:

In the form for edit:

<%= form_for @return_header do |form| %>
  <%= form.label :nav_return_reason_code "Return Reason" %>
  <%= form.select :nav_return_reason_code, options_for_select(ReturnHeader.return_reason_select, @return_header.nav_return_reason_code) %>
<% end %>

(Maybe no the most elegant way to do it, but works. Don’t know, why options_for_select expects a hash to be “text” => “key”, but that’s the reason, why above class level method returns the hash inverted.)

In my index action the return reason is listed in one of the columns. There I can get the value simply by

@return_headers.each do |rh|
    rh.return_reason
end

If you have trouble to get it run, check that keys a correct type and value. Maybe add some debug info with logger.info in the methods to see what actual data is used there.