Rails collection_select syntax issue

I’m trying to display unique counties listed in my database in select
box for a property database. I’ve figured out how to do this, but now
I can’t figure out how to access the selected value of the select.
This mainly has do with the way the HTML select name is outputted.

My form code, county is an attribute for my property model:

<%= collection_select(:property, :county,
@Counties, :county, :county, {:prompt => true}) %>

This outputs the HTML

Please select

Pearl River Marion Stone Lamar Forrest Jones Washington

It is the []'s in the select name "property[county] that is giving me
fits. The other items in the search form use select_tag so the output
is simply “min_price” rather than “property[min_price]”. This is
causing a syntax error when I’m trying to put together my search
results array in my Property model:

def self.find_by_lcc(params)
where = []
unless params[:mls].blank?
where << “mls = :mls”
end
unless params[:county].blank?
where << “county = :county”
end
unless params[:min_acreage].blank?
where << “acreage >= :min_acreage”
end
unless params[:max_acreage].blank?
where << “acreage <= :max_acreage”
end
unless params[:min_price].blank?
where << “price >= :min_price”
end
unless params[:max_price].blank?
where << “price <= :max_price”
end

if where.empty?
[]
else
find(:all,
:conditions => [where.join(" AND "), params],
:order => “city, price desc”)
end

Due to the county problem all the records are being listed rather than
just the properties within that county. The browser URL string I’m
getting is:

public/land?mls=&property[county]
=Stone&min_acreage=0&max_acreage=16000000&min_price=0&max_price=1600000&commit=Search

I have searched for answers on this for a couple of days and I’m sure
it’s a simple syntax method I need to use in compiling my search
array.

Thanks for any help!

You’re probably better off using select_tag, together with
options_for_select here. collection_select appears to be giving you a
bit more magic than you want…

Example:

<%= select_tag :county, options_for_select([“Please select a
county…”, “”][email protected] { |c| [c,c]}) %>

(change the entries in the map call if @counties has objects rather
than strings - the first entry in the array is the label, and the
second is the value that will be sent)

–Matt J.

Thank you Matt! This worked nicely.