Inserting a nil value into a Select/Drop Down Menu

Rails
1

I might have asked this before, but I don’t think I got a reply.

I’m using this code to create a drop-down menu of ‘cuisines’:

<%= select_tag “cuisine_id”,
options_from_collection_for_select(@cuisines, ‘id’, ‘name’) %>

My question is, how can I add an “All Cuisines” option to the start of
this menu, with a nil value? Or is there someway that lets you add a
similar option? It’s a common thing to have in a drop-down menu so I’m
sure it’s been discussed somewhere.

I’m guessing I’d probably have to code it more explicitly. Thanks!

2

Since options_from_collection_for_select returns a string of normal

tags, you should be able to just append it to your own tag:

<%= select_tag “cuisine_id”,
“All Cuisines” +
options_from_collection_for_select(@cuisines, ‘id’, ‘name’) %>

Or make a helper that does this for you.

Justin

3

blaix wrote:

Since options_from_collection_for_select returns a string of normal

tags, you should be able to just append it to your own tag:

<%= select_tag “cuisine_id”,
“All Cuisines” +
options_from_collection_for_select(@cuisines, ‘id’, ‘name’) %>

Or make a helper that does this for you.

Justin

Thanks this works perfectly!

4

Rich,

Does this code still work if you have a form validation error? Where
are you declaring the @cuisines object?

5

The option way works, but I do it this way as well for a list of
countries
where I want USA to appear first…

@usa = Country.find(:first, :conditions => [“name = ?”, usa_name])
@countries = Country.find(:all,
:conditions => [‘country_code IS NOT NULL
AND
name <> ?’, usa_name],
:order => ‘name ASC’)
@countries.insert(0, @usa)

You might want to do a similar thing in your controller, who knows.

On 12/27/06, JL Smith [email protected] wrote:

Rich,

Does this code still work if you have a form validation error? Where
are you declaring the @cuisines object?

–

seth at subimage interactive

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