Question

in my controller I am collecting data (into a hash) like this (note that I do not have a BillingAddress model in my app, @billing_address is standard ruby hash

@billing_address = params[:billing_address]

my view is laid out like this

<%= text_field_tag 'billing_address[phone]' %>

I want to show the previous value that user entered (in case of errors), like this:

<%= text_field_tag 'billing_address[phone]', @billing_address['phone'] %>

however, this gives me an exception saying I am trying to access nil, ideas?

Answer 1

I guess params[:billing_address] is nil.
Try to assign empty hash if it is.

@billing_address = params[:billing_address] || {}