Question

In the .to_sentence method, How can I get the last_word_connector to output an HTML string?

For example:

locations.to_sentence last_word_connector: '<br />'

I want the <br /> to actually be interpreted. I have tried adding .html_safe on the end but to no avail.

Answer 1

You’ll need to tell the view that the string is “safe” to insert (i.e. it should be inserted as-is – not escaped):

<%= locations.to_sentence(last_word_connector: '<br />').html_safe %>

The html_safe method returns a string that’s marked as, well, html-safe. So it won’t be escaped.

Use with caution. The reason Rails escapes string by default is that it makes html- and javascript-injection attempts harmless. So if you’re not completely sure of the content of locations, then be careful.